Complete Painted Armies on Sale

I'm gradually adding to the eBay listings pages on this site, and the latest page has a listing of complete painted armies for sale. If you ever want to quickly check what's on sale on ebay, but can't be bothered with the hassle of logging in and searching, my eBay listings pages are idea for you - see the full set of them on the right!

Baueda's range now added to the Photo Directory

All of Baueda's "new" (ex 50-Paces) Viking range, and their Emeshi, Flaming Pigs and Ottoman Incendiary Javelinmen now appear in the photo directory on this site.

Match Reports from Burton 2009

Meet The Spartans as they meet Persians, Dominate Romans, Selukids and Graeco Bactrians in 4 full action match reports - with added Hannibal and Leonidas as well!

Naismith & Roundway 15mm Ancients Suppliers

I've added these two brands (both manufactured by Navwar) to the 15mm Ancients Suppliers lists so you can rate them. There are some photos of Roundway Swiss now in the Photo directory too.

User-guide to Medieval Irish

The FoG Wiki has had a great guide to the Medieval Irish added by one of the Wiki users. Take a look - maybe it'll inspire you to have a try at adding something yourself to the Wiki? Nearly 400 Wiki pages are being viewed every day, so any contribution will help other gamers!

Basing Figures - The Movie

I've created a short YouTube movie on how I base my figures - its available by clicking this link. I will dig out some more links to basing guides and add them to this page soon - if you know any such sites please email me with their url's.

Snowed In?

With much of the UK snowed in, many gamers may well be bored and at home this week. Luckily I've compiled a list of good timewasting things to do on Madaxeman.com. Follow this link for a list of ways to pass the time instead of painting figures!

Wolves From The Sea - 10 Days To Go!

The Vikings are Coming!!

It's almost February, which means its only a few days before the Wolves from the Sea: The Dark Ages FoG lists are published. Follow this link to Amazon.co.uk and place a postage-free advance order with Amazon.co.uk ! Or for US Orders click here.

(Two Dragons Viking figures)

Match Reports from Usk 2009

Hamanids of Alleppo in 900 AP FoG doubles action in a Decline and Fall themed competition. An attempted Arab Swarm army goes wild in South Wales...read all about it here.

Voting Buttons for Manufacturers

I've added in voting buttons for all the 15mm manufacturers on my listings page - so you can now rate each manufacturer, and see how other people rate them as well. Please vote!

Isarus have a sale too

They are offering 15% off all list prices for all miniatures ranges, until 29th January 2009.

2009 Events Calendar

The Wiki now includes a full 2009 Events Calendar, listing Wargaming and Gaming Competitions, Trade Shows & Conventions as well as re-enactments, major air shows and military vehicle events. The Calendar is here. If you have an event, you can add it in yourself - instantly!

New Auction Listing Pages

Ths site now hosts eBay UK auction listings for Terrain, flock and basing material, D6 (for when the dice gods desert you) and 20mm Ancients Figures. Grab yourself a Credit Crunch bargain!

Old Glory January sale as well..

Old Glory US have a sale until the end of January offering 30% off for orders of $101-$399 and 40% off for orders of $400 or more. Their website can also be reached via the 15mm Ancient Suppliers Index on this site.

Osprey's "Jagdflieger- Luftwaffe Fighter 39-45"

Over Christmas my interest in all things "WW2" meant I received a copy of the new Osprey book "Jagdfleiger : Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot 1939-35" which turned out to be surprisingly interesting - so I thought I'd review it here (Click the title of this link for a full review if you are looking at this from www.madaxeman.com).

The book is a standard Osprey-sized tome, 64 pages with black & white photos on nearly every page and a number of full colour plates as well, but unlike many older Osprey books, it's much much more than just some fairly lightweight historical background text designed only to wrap around the pretty colour pictures.

The book covers all aspects of a Luftwaffe fighter pilot's life. This starts at their recruitment, and covers life on base, how "kills" were awarded, dogfighting and bomber interception tactics and how the esprit-du-corps of the Luftwaffe was maintained through the punishing final stages of the war when flying against astounding odds.

Reading it I found myself increasingly drawn into the myriad of interesting details and first-hand accounts of day-to-day stories that unfolded from the exceptionally well written text - in many ways it reminded me of the style of authors like Max Hastings who can add journalistic flourishes to historical record to bring it to life.

Tales of how a rare deserting pilot was disappointed not be then allowed to join the RAF share space with evocative black and white images of newly decorated pilots - followed by footnotes showing how they were killed in action only months later. In each case these details are neatly woven into the text, illustrating the dry facts in a way which succeeds time and time again throughout the book - and any book that can achieve making Luftwaffe mechanics diets sound interesting must be doing something right.

The colour pictures - still the mainstay of any Osprey book - are mostly in the style of detailed "uniform painting-guides" useful to the modeller (of Luftwaffe crew... which must surely mean those with an attention to detail far beyond the call of duty!) to a couple of "artistic" combat sequences which add both literal and metaphorical colour to the book.

But for once the colour plates are outshone by the many highly evocative black and white photos mixing detailed aircraft & unit insignia identification shots with pictures of young men (some with faces showing an age beyond their years) displaying the same emotions we have all seen in photos of RAF or USAF fliers from the same era.

So, a surprisingly absorbing and interesting book that hooked me from the off - and on a subject that I had little previous interest in, but which I found thoroughly fascinating. Highly recommended to anyone wishing to get a feel for an aspect of WW2 which is often overlooked.

Total War : Empire - Out Soon!

The new 18th Century Total War PC game is out in less than a month! There is a demo video available for Empire: Total War (UK Edition) here. Amazon are offering it for under £25 in the UK or $47 for the US version with free delivery via those links.

LKM/Friekorps January Sale

Looks like LKM/QRF have a January sale as well - 10% off everything from 11-25 January. They too have figures on view in the Ancients Directory. Search the "Manufacturer" field for "LKM" to see more.

More manufacturers represented

AB Miniatures Sassanids and Splintered Light Romano British now added to the Ancients Photo Gallery. Don't forget to rate these figures when you access the Gallery!

Museum Miniatures are having a sale

Looks like everything is 25% off until (I think) the middle or end of January. I've had good service from them in the past, and their Arab-ish Ghilman cavalry mix well with Outpost and Khurasan - see this link - and a lot of their dismounted medieval knights are cool as well. Worth a look?

As Featured in Miniature Wargames

The Antietam game in 10mm played in August is in January's Miniature Wargames magazine. Fame at last!

December 25th - Keen Gamers Online !

On Christmas Day this site recorded 105 visitors, accessing separate 716 pages. 49.52% found the site after searching for phrases including "arab imperial field of glory ", "1/144 scale ww2 infantry" and "fog parthian army 15mm". Slitherine and The Miniatures Page provided most referrals. The FoG Wiki was the most popular section.

MY Miniatures & Bears Den added to the supplier directory

MY are a UK Manufacturer selling Macedonians, Bactrians, Persians, Indians, Genereic Arabs, Gladiators/Slave Revolt, WOTR/Medievals, C16 Spanish, Arthurian British, Saxons, Celts, Vikings, Lombards, Persians, Villanovan & Etruscan Italians and some Biblical ranges. Bears Den have one range - Warring States Chinese

Camelot Games

Now added to the 15mm manuacturers directory, as well as an Italian distributor for the Miniature Wars ranges. Camelot sell several ranges including Polybian/ MRR Romans, Huns, Vikings & Rus, Crusader Knights & Arabs, and CXIII medievals

Merry Christmas

Madaxeman.com and Festive Nasty Hannibal wish everyone a Happy Christmas & New Year. As a Christmas treat you can send this image as an eCard to all your friends - just click the link, register for the 15mm photo gallery and e-mail away (by clicking the envelope icon in the top right corner of each image page!

Osprey War Elephants

I've just picked up a copy of Osprey's much discussed book on War Elephants, so thought I'd do a quick review here.

The book is the standard Osprey-format paperback, 48 pages cover-to-cover and written by Konstantin Nossov with illustrations by Peter Dennis. Unlike older Ospreys, this book has colour photos or illustrations on virtually every double page spread.

The book is divided into sections covering different armies use of elephants, namely Indian, Alexandrian, Phyrrus, Carthage, Roman, South East Asia and "Elsewhere" (China and Persia), then an overview of types of elephant and their types of use.

Many of the illustrations and photos come from - unsurprisingly - India - where use of elephants has been well documented in art and on record, especially from the relatively recent Moghul and similar eras.

The use of elephants in Classical warfare is covered in as much depth as posible, especially where important recorded battles used elephants - but inevitably there are gaps in the historical record which the book wisely leaves open rather than assertively plumping for one or other possible historical interpretation.

Many of the key classical battles are covered in some depth with lengthy quotes from historical sources, and in particular the history of Indian war elephants gets a very in depth coverage, looking at armour, tactics, equipment and usage - and there is still no definitive statement on whether Carthaginian Elephants had towers!

Getting the balance right between in-depth and superficial coverage of the whole global historical record of elephant warfare in a 48-page booklet is always going to be a tough ask, especially when the historical record itself can often be quite thin or patchy, and so this book leaves you with a slight feeling that it "should" be better - but maybe it's impossible for it to be so.

At the end of the day we all already know that Elephants are big old beasts which frighten horses, skittle over unprepared infantry formations and knock down castle doors. They are scary for your enemies if they charge them, and even more scary if they panic and rout back through your own army.

This book says all of this, it has some great illustrations (especially of Indian/Moghul era elephants) and it also provides enough detail on some of the Classical era battles as well. Will it tell you anything astounding you didn't know - probably not, but thats maybe more of an issue with the subject matter rather than the book.

Buy the book here:

Warmodelling/Fantassin 15mm Ancients Photos

..now in the Ancients gallery, with a review, size comparison shots vs Essex, Old Glory, Xyston and Corvus Belli.

FoG Tactical Tips Guide & WIKI

In a collaboration with MikeK, the FoG Tactical Tips Guide now appears on this site in WIKI format - so you can edit it and share your own FoG experiences with other gamers.

Isarus Byzantines now added to the Gallery

More "from the manufacturer" photos of this oft-overlooked but very nice little range.

My Guide to taking pictures of your figures

I've compiled a step-by-step guide to photographing figures, which you can see by clicking the title link above. Its dead easy, and I bet you already have all the equipment already to set up a studio just like mine!

Gifts for Christmas

No, not the Hannibal Mug again. Follow this link for 9 carefully selected "nice to have/must have" books & gifts for you (or your partner) to buy this Christmas. For a proper "surprise" gift, just ask them to buy you one (or two) at random!

I've Shrunk The Adverts!

After getting feedback from some visitors you may notice I've reduced the amount of space occupied by Google adverts at the top of each page of this site. So, no more full colour ads asking you if you "Want to date Single Persians?". Sorry!

Loads more photos in the Ancients Gallery!

...... New photos of LKM, Lancashire, Alain Touller, Irregular, Magister Militum, Museum, Black Hat, Grumpys and 2-Dragons now added. The Supplier Listing has also been updated

LRR Lists & Design Notes

Provided for The Wiki by FoG Author Simon Hall - see where I went wrong at Warfare, and learn how someone who wrote the rules would design and use this list !

Romans vs Parthians on YouTube

If you are really lazy (and like Bob Dylan) you can try the Rome vs Parthia battle on YouTube

Warfare - all 4 reports

FoG battle reports of Late Republican Romans vs Parthians, Early Carthaginians, Bosporans and Selukids now online.

New Xyston Gaesati Photos

Reviews Now added to the Photo Gallery, including some size comparison photos vs Essex Minis Celts, and shots of the figures next to a ruler.

Warfare Army Lists

Lists now posted for My Romans, and all my opponents - Parthians, Early Carthaginians, Bosporans, and Selukids.

Warfare Reading

FOG - A rather painful experience for my Marian Romans at Reading this past weekend. Army lists by the end of the week, reports may take a little longer.

Over 100 more pictures added !

Romans, Greeks, Lydians, Indian, Persians, Thracians... over 100 new pics added to my site (many kindly provided by theonetree Painting Service")

New Additions for the Photo Gallery

New photos added to the Ancients Gallery including some Late Republican Legionaries and Greek Hoplites with funky shield designs.

Later Polish added to the FoGipedia

800 ap army list, external links, pictures and brief useage notes

Gettysburg

Well, the technology all worked, and the live report is available on this site. The posts are in reverse order, so when you click through to the Gettysburg pages you need to scroll down to the end, and then work upwards to follow the course of the battle.
All photos are clickable (to make them larger).

New additions to 15mm Supplier Index

50 Paces and War Modelling now added to my 15mm Ancients Suppliers Directory. There are now 37 different manufacturers listed, with details of all their ranges.

Gettysburg in 10mm - Maybe...

I might be posting live updates from a "Gettysburg Day 2" Fire & Fury game this weekend. But only if I can sort out internet access at the venue. Check this this page for details.

African Vandals added to FoGipedia

Reader-contributed content helps me create a page in the FoGipedia on this hairy bunch.

"Hannibal Speaks" coffee mug now available!

Ideal for Christmas - a selection of "Nasty Hannibal" Mugs with the slogan "This Coffee has about it the bitter taste of defeat". Also comes in "Hot Chocolate" and "Beer" varieties Click here to buy this and other bizzarre items!

4 Match Reports from Roll Call

All 4 battles now uploaded to the website. Photos, writeups, lists and the return of Hannibal's award-winning Post Match Analysis - Click Here.

Roll Call

It all ends up a bit flat as I face 4 cataphract armies out of 4 - 78 cats over the weekend !!! Full reports to follow by the end of the week. Promise.

Roll Call - FoG Army Lists

My Foederate Romans, Richard Bodley Scott's Sassanid, 2 Palmyrans, including The UK No1's, and a Parthian.

Roll Call Update:

After the 1st day I am mid table with a big win against Parthians and a big loss to Richard Bodley-Scott's Sassanids. Report next week:

Free Delivery at Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk has just anounced that it now offers FREE "Super-Saver" delivery on any item over £5!! That means pretty much everything in my UK Bookshop can be ordered with FREE POSTAGE!

FoG Decline & Fall Out Now

The FoG book on the Byzantines arrived today, and looks to have some interesting armies in it - after the rather "samey" Ottoman Book. Order it via this link in the UK, or this one in the US

Central London Club (West)

October's CLWC nights at the Perseverance are: Thur 16th, Wed 22nd, Thur 30th. Club nights at The C___ Tavern in Euston are every Tuesday.

Poles added to the 10mm Gallery

Pitheads Polish range creates a new section in the 10mm Gallery

Visitors now able to add comments to Photos

If you visit my 15mm figure directory or the 10mm one you can now add comments to each picture

Ancients Photo Directory Released in "beta"

The 10mm WW2 Photo Directory has been so popular I've added now an Ancients Photo Directory to his site. There's over 500 photos already, and you can even upload your own photos (so please do so!).

Field of Glory Army Pages under Construction

I'm gradually adding a whole set of Army-specific pages to my website, with links, pictures, army lists and other goodies.

Britcon reports now posted

I've finally got round to posting the Britcon reports on my website. The whole site is now coded in "php" to allow me to add links to relevant books, and other content. This should help with search engine rankings too.

The games are Cilician Armenians vs

Free Company
Crown of Aragon
Later Danish
Early Ach-wotsit Persian
Late Roman (Dominate?)
Ancient British

All 7 lists are posted, together with the usual pics, commentary, analysis, rules stuff and inapropriate you-tube embedded video..

Georgia - Military Analysis

Military Analysis 101

The war in Georgia conclusively proved that having lots of modern Russian military hardware is better than having a small amount of out of date Russian hardware.

dubai

the other (3rd) gamer in Dubai likes a beer

and plays DBM, FoW and FoG

and lives near me

and was the only serious drinker from his club in singapore.

oh yes......

Fo G Comp this weekend

Its another FoG competition this weekend, with carthaginians getting a 800point outing this time

Im hoping Hannibal can inspire the boys to victory - and that I dont have to face too many medieval armies!

Live updates may make their way onto this blog...

What do you think of my Disrupted markers?

These downloadable FoG markers are the latest value-added bonus available from this site. If you like - or dislike - them please comment below. You can buy the actual figures from Donnignton, who now go by the name of Ancient & Modern

Field of Glory now in my possession

I now have the rules and the first 2 lists - both via Amazon, arriving before their scheduled dates.

And they look gooooood !!!

The bar has certainly been raised on production values for both rules and lists.

My DBM lists and rules are now already looking embarassed and shuffling towards the corner of the room

FoG Rules start to ship today

The reports I get on my Amazon UK affiliate bookstore on madaxeman.com show that they have started shipping copies ordered via my website as of 14/01/08. This is (I would say materially) earlier than date that Amazon has always given as its official shipping date of the 18th Feb.

The reports don't give me access to any more information than this, so its imposible for me to know who they have gone to, or even when the copies shipped were ordered, or when/(if?) any more will be shipped, I just have visibility of total ordered and total shipped.

Total orders via my UK site to date include over 50 copies of the rules, and similar numbers of the first 2 army lists since I set up the site in September or October last year – the orders have come in across this timeline, and several are now coming in each day.

Either way, despite the rumours, Amazon UK have clearly got some copies, and they have clearly now started sending them out.

Its exciting that the rules are out there and shipping. For the biggest problem at this point to be too much demand (despite apparently three increases to the print run) is not exactly bad news for the hobby, although it may be irritating for some of us.

I also think it's hard to pin too much blame on either Amazon or Osprey for failing to accurately predict that a new set of rules for the totally obscure hobby of ancient wargaming (priced at 50-100% more than any previous set) would end up (as of today) as the 186th best selling book in the UK, or even more astoundingly, the No3 in the History category – just behind the biography of someone who is looking likley to be the next president of the USA!

See – here's the link to Amazons charts (updated hourly) link

One slightly irritating (potential) delay for a bloke who plays with toy soldiers, but one giant leap in popularity for the whole hobby.

Field of Glory Wargame Rules

Played another game of Field of Glory last night, with my Selikids against Carlos' Dominate Romans. The FoG Army list I used will soon be published on my website here.

The game was a test of whether legions could be beaten by a combination of pikes and elephants - and yes, it can be done! Its a tight interaction though, but as long as the pikemen dont lose the first round, they can grind down the legion... just.

I lost one 12-strong pike block, but crunched 2 blocks of legionaries. I could have tried to keep the pikemen alive, but my general; had gotten into the wrong position and was unable to help them out ... doh!

Field of Glory Wargame Rules - a Review

The Summary and Overall Review of Field of Glory

Whilst there's not too much rocket science in Field of Glory, the rules overall seem (touch wood) pretty simple to get the hang of and also pretty bomb-proof against cheese and geometry - the two worst game wreckers. The long development process, the input of a few wargaming hacks and the addition of commercial-publishing standard editing and reviewing seem to have been worth the effort in producing something that's tightly written, easy to understand, and adequately covers pretty much all eventualities.

How good is it as "History & Simulation", well, to be honest that's a whole barrel of worms I'm not really someone who is qualified to open, so I won't even go there. What I can say however is that I got a definite sense that a lot of thought has gone into FoG to make sure it's "playable" - and by this I don't just mean "is it clear and simple?", but rather there has been effort to make sure, mathematically and game-mechanics-wise, that the balance between "my troops are better so they should win in this situation" and "but if my opponent gets a bit of luck I might lose..." has been set up to create what feel like the right level of uncertainty - which is after all what creates the excitement in wargames as opposed to chess.

The other element of the "its been designed to have playability" that comes across is that there are actually quite a lot of key decisions to be made at many points in the game (especially concerning what to do with Generals) - although it would also be fair to say that it took me a lot longer to work out what they were, and to realise the impact of my choices than in say DBx sets I've played before.

Does it "grip" you and is there depth? Well, right now I'd say "yes" although I was previously (even as late as the end of last year) definitely pretty skeptical on this.

The big change for me came during the competition at Usk, which was the second competition I'd done. I think the 10 competition games have been a lot, lot more important in getting me to a point at which I started to understand tactics and see the "simple to learn / hard to master" depth in the rules than the 10 or so beta-testing games I played.

Maybe there is just something in playing against strangers who also knew the rules and who were trying to win, as opposed to playing my mate Adam with both of us trying to learn the mechanics and decide if we "liked" the rules which also made a huge difference?

Maybe as well it was having the basic mechanics down pat that allowed us to look beyond them into the game itself, and - probably most importantly - I'm sure that using the same army for 4 games on the bounce against different opponents allowed me to starting to see how the same troops performed in different situations, and think what I could do differently next time to improve things.

Differences to DBx & Warmaster - well, lots. No pips for movement, elements are locked into fairly big units that move by wheeling, and morale (or maybe "waver") tests are back are the biggest 3.

No pip-based command and control really surprised me initially, and as I said earlier, it takes a while to realise that there is any command and control mechanic. But, whilst pips (or for Warmaster players, command rolls) used to represent an abstraction not only of command and control, but also (in my mind) of how the key action in a battle can end up occurring in one small sector of the line (where both sides spend all their pips) whilst the rest is inconclusive (ie they stand there doing nowt), they also have their downsides - certainly in that the ability to do long-distance, multiple moves often has excessive influence on deployment, tactics and the overall outcome in both games, and also there is an inherently odd aspect to the idea of troops standing still for ages without lumbering forward to fight enemy they may only be yards (or inches) from. So, you win some, and lose some on this, but you do get a change.

Elements in big units is again a mixed blessing, and one its hard not to comment on without veering into the "is it historical?" debate - but this time I may dip my toe in these dangerous waters.... If you mentally equate DBx "elements" or Warmaster Units to FoG "Battle Groups" (ie units..), FoG feels like a skirmish and DBx feels like a massive battle (viewed from space!) - and this is easy to do, even though the FoG rules insist/imply that a FoG battlegroup is a collection of smaller sized units (represented by the element bases).

But once you accept the FoG argument and see each element as a sub unit, and each Battle Group as the unit of command and maneuver it does start to make more sense, and I found myself thinking whether DBx (or WMA) rules might even be improved by borrowing from FoG by insisting that for any troops to be deployed and moved they had to in multiple-element brigades of the same troop type. And irrespective of the "historical or not?" debate, its hard to argue against a view that so much geometry and cheese goes immediately out the window once the ability of relatively small formations to move and act independently on the battlefield is severely curtailed.

Morale and waver tests - well, that's a dangerous and bold thing for anyone to reintroduce, especially to anyone who remembers 7th. Initially the biggest mental hurdle for me was the reintroduction of morale tests which seemed to reintroduce a large and highly important random element into the game - but gradually I've learnt to appreciate how correct use of Generals, rear support and various other factors allow you to significantly increase your troops ability to survive them - and also to appreciate that by making a basic 2xD6 score of "7" the usual pass/fail baseline, even being able to add (or cause your enemy to deduct) 1 positive factor means you can make a material difference to the probability of succeeding or failing.

The other good news is that they aren't quite so dramatically bad as in 7th - where you could go from steady to broken in 2 bad dice rolls, both on a single D6 with no modifiers, and the are nowhere near as byzantine as they were in 6th and its predecessors, as there's only 6 or 7 simple factors to remember.

The final thing is that by shifting the way combats are resolved away from pushbacks and into progressive slipping - or restoring - of fighting ability via a simple test has also allowed FoG to remove even more geometry from the game, as there is no need for a slew of special rules about troops being pushed back, or conforming in combat or any of that gubbins. So, whilst I was initially reluctant, I can now see the upsides as well.

Will everyone like these rules - well, certainly not. Will a lot of people like them - I think almost certainly - both coming from a DBx and a GW tradition. Is there anything brain-stoppingly brilliant and innovative in them? Sorry, not really - but there is definitely a fair amount of subtle and well thought out stuff that will make sure its a good "game to play.

Is it historical - well, it looks pretty reasonable to me, but I profess no real in-depth expertise and I have no appetite for an endless argument either so I'll sidestep that one and leave it to you. Either way, right now I'm looking forward to my next game and next competition, and thinking of buying some more troops too.... none of which has happened in a long time for me - so something must be good in there!!

To order your copy follow the following links

UK Bookshop

US Bookshop

French Bookshop

Field of Glory Wargames Rules Selling well

Sales of Field of Glory rules are going really well via my Amazon affiliate websites, with over 50 copies sold in the UK, and about a dozen in the US.

Thats only for the rules themselves, so the army lists are selling nearly as well, even those which are only on pre release so far

The UK website has been expanded to be a comprehensive bookshop for all ancient armies, and the US one may be expanded too, basically if enough sales come from the UK to make it worth my while doing the legwork!

The UK site is at http://www.madaxeman.com/FoGshop.htm

The US one is at http://www.madaxeman.com/general/us_store.htm

I've tried a French one, but no sales so far :-( http://www.madaxeman.com/FR_shop.htm

Must be a good sign for the prospects for the rules eh ?

Field of Glory now available in France

via my online Amazon store

its all over now

My last game ends up with a 10-0 win as the Gothic knights crash to their doom on a wall of supported spearmen, and the Dacian allies of the Goths decide to rush out of some brush, and find themselves fighting a losing battle against chariots.

The evil Reigate empire has picked up the trophy with Jason Broomers insanely effective Sinhalese army that I played a couple of years ago at Ascot picking up the prize.

Farewell DBM !!!

Roll on the new world order!

www.madaxeman.com

and....

Its Linda Fairhurst and a Ostrogoth army with Dacian allies.

Hail Mary!

Wall to wall kn F

www.madaxeman.com

game 5

Tim Porter
www.madaxeman.com

the Rus

Managed to hang on for a fingernails off the table edge sort of draw.

phew!

www.madaxeman.com

Sunday mornings game

And I'm playing Rus.

Or to use their full name, Fecking Rus.

Hoo bloody rah.

Maybe i should just get an earlier flight. My last DBM competition could end without s single win!

www.madaxeman.com

Heres the kind of photo you take after too much Guinness

So, where was Dave Madigan

Dave Madigan is a notable omission from this DBM swansong

But at least he was here in spirit




I'm also guessing the "food served daily" contains some fried elements

Game 3

ends up as a close 6-4 win against Chris Smiths Pechenegs.

A terrain free table is swept across by my spear wall, but some terrible dice in bounds 2-5 and some dogged defending by the Pecheneg light horse and wagons means I only get one command and am about 2 moves short of being able to flee another command off table.

I am now languishing with 2 points out of 9. You may be wondering who's in the lead - well, I dont really know, and as we all sit in different rooms in the rabbit-warren like building to play frankly the leaders may as well be on another planet
!!

Here are my spearmen trying to shove some light horse off a gentle hill



A couple of chariots beat themselves senseless against a wall of wooden wagons



Pecheneg is a large army. But you can fit it all in a fairly small space if you try


0

Right, now its time for a night on the lash!

Here's lunch

Just to prove its not possible to have too much Guinness and fried food.....

2nd game

A 5-5 draw against a shato turk army commanded by Mr Hessian.

48% casualties on both sides and both of us 1 element away from victory.

And a proper lunch hour in the pub, with Arsenal Man Utd on the telly to boot.

But my capacity for fried food is already being severely tested.

Tim Porter
www.madaxeman.com

The Irish welcomed many foreigners

Some in-game pics

My blades wade into Tilmans bows



Two mounted generals get intimate in the rough



The Art I are not quite as clever as they hoped!

Heres some we drank earlier

In The Airport


0

In a pub

Heres Ruddocks sandwich

Nice of him to return it to the tray.

Fortunately, with so many wargamers around, it wasnt to last for that much longer

Friday night latest.

So, one game and one loss. Due to Guinness fuelled incompetence in losing a general who I probably didn't need to risk in an attempt to try and win the game early and have more bar time. A Burgundian army was my opponent if that's important.....

However its now eytinh close to double figures of Guinness pints. So the important things are going well.

Maybe get some photos up tomorrow.

www.madaxeman.com

now here in dublin

looking for a bar, and also looking for the venue.

Usefully, I forgot the directions. and the iwf website is down.

ok

at least a bar should be easy to find

2 pints

In the airport

European DBM Championships, Dublin

Yes, its 10am on a Friday morning, and after a late night at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, (don't ask) my body and stomach is facing up to the prospect of Gunniess in the near future as I plan to head out to Heathrow to fly to Sunny (cloudy) Dublin!!

Luckily I had a handy translation guide to the local lingo..




Now, will we have time to do some shopping this afternoon?

Warhamster Battle Report

My Devizes battle report has generated a fair bit of interest on the TMP
site - but mostly between myself and one other bloke talking about the
shooting rules.

No reaction from the Yahoo WMA group, nothing on BHGS Yahoo, and one comment
on the Yahoo DBMlist. I'm surprised there is nothing on Yahoo, as I havent
seen any groovy battle reports posted there before.

I should really have set up traffic monitoring so I knew how many visits
there were, but its a bit late now.

Devizes warhamster Results

The result is... that I won!!

Nicked it from the far more experienced Clice with a massive 960 point
victory in my last game (he scored about 600 in winning his last game) - so
I won 3 games and lost one.

Even so, I still remain to be convinced about the rules !

10mm ACW photos

I spent a chunk of the weekend photographing and uploading the pics of 10mm unpainted ACW figures, taken from the large batch of Pendraken stuff that arrived about a week ago.

Having this many photos has allowed me to implement a "full" searchable site for ACW 10mm photos, with sub pages for all the different manufacturers I am aware of - you can link to it from here.

There are pics of at least one figure from every manufacturer, and a full set of compare and contrast photos with different manufacturers side by side.

I'm expecting a load of Minifigs to arrive any day now, so that will also be another large addition to the directory - having painted models may be some time away though!!

10mm Romans nearing completion

I'm almost at the end of a seemingly interminable project to paint up a 10mm
WMA Roman army. Its one of those thats dragged on and on - and now as the
first batch of 10mm ACW stuff is here, I'm desparate to clear the painting
table to make room for them !!

Almost done - but I keep finding new sets of straps and belts to add to the
"to paint" list before I can base them

still not decided if I will keep or sell them however1!

Swedish Wargames Competition Terrain

The Scandinavian DBM Open 2007 kindly provided free "Rough Going" terrain for all competitors:

Pieces came in a standard 1 FE format, but could be nibbled to size as required.

This became much easier after application of a little cream cheese and a slice of smoked salmon.

Me within minutes of arriving in Stockholm

Hmmm... The Ten Poond Roond never tasted so good.

The end of The Nordic Championships

Well, in a weekend of much excessive behaviour + well cost and wargaming wise anyway + the Vikings just about stagger away from Stockholm counting the cost in every way possible.

4 Games

2 wins, 2 losses

Out of 400 percent (of my army over 4 games) I suffered 297 percent in casualties

I had my largest command broken in every game, and this includes being totally eliminated (all killed in combat) in 1 of them and having none of its elemmemnts left on table in one other.

Ive managed to spend over 15o poinds on, erm, booze and a kebab. And I dont feel like Ive gone that mad....

cant wait to be back at work next week !

First game

A 91 win after losing 33 out of 34.5 elements against abbasids.

Combat in bound 1 !!

A 27.5 ee command (of mine) totally eliminated!!!

THe Vikings have definately landed....

And we are now in the pub.

Sweden

Having breakfast now, after spending over £50 on beer last night. Each. And
we only had a kebab.

£5 for 400ml of beer is a bit severe isn't it?

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Stockholm 'Nordic Championships' 8-10th June

Here is an updated list for the coming weekend....

1. Jesper Ohlsson Later Carthaginian II/32
2. Niilo Kalakoski Pictish II/68
3. Hannu Uusitalo Fanatic Berber III/74
4. Kimmo Ylinen
5. Mika Mäkelä Early Samurai III/54
6. Tero Särkijärvi Minoan I/18
7. Arne Björk Order of St. John IV/56
8. Ulf Olsson Abbasid Arab III/37
9. Chris Smith Medieval O'irish IV/58
10 . Tim Porter Norse Viking III/40
11. Brian Holmes Mithridatic II/48
12. Ludvig Uhlbors Iazyges II/26 ( I know...)
13. Greg Mann Papal Italian 1283 AD III/72
14. Sebastian Routh
15. Andy Routh

The mystery armies are still in there. Not sure what Routhish will have in
it !

Nordic Championships Runners & Riders

My Viking army will go to Sweden in June to play in the Nordic DBM
Championships

The runners and riders so far are:

Jesper Ohlsson Later Carthaginian II/32
2. Niilo Kalakoski Pictish II/68
3. Hannu Uusitalo Fanatic Berber III/74
4. Kimmo Ylinen
5. Mika Mäkelä
6. Tero Särkijärvi
7. Arne Björk Order of St. John IV/56
8. Ulf Olsson Abbasid Arab III/37
9. Chris Smith Medieval O'irish IV/58
10 . Tim Porter Norse Viking III/40
11. Brian Holmes Mithridatic II/48
12. Ludvig Uhlbors Iazyges II/26

I'm not sure if numbers 4 thru 6 are the players or their armies !

My Viking list is the proper thing - Bd F, pre 850 AD.

Coals to Newcastle !

The Result

A crushing victory for the cathaginian - the filler plus skirmishers plus 3 units of killer cavalry (inlcuding an elephant unit) worked well as they picked apart an Alexandrian army with far too few skirmishers.

 

The Numidians even managed to devastate a unit of Argyaspid Pikemen, killing 1/3 of them in one round of shooting from 3 units of light horse.

 

The Alexandrians had no answer to shoot-evade tactics.

 

Still not convinced though - not really working as a simulation of ancient warfare at 1000 points. It needs more points or a "play nicely children" rule added I fear!

Warhamster Tonight

Going to be trying out a highly mobile hard hitting Carthaginian army tonight, with elephants, 2 units of shock cavalry and a core of compulsary infantry and optional warband to bulk it out

My theory is that the game revolves around a bit of messing about coupled with some decisive rounds of combat from the uber troops. So expendable ubertroops due to a cute army composition, plus a mess of skirmishers might just work

PBI Last Weekend

Played PBI in Portbury this last weekend, giving the mighty 1939 Belgians a run out - and they actually did quite well, coming 2nd overall.

 

With 3 defensive games they managed to hold off 2 sets of Later War Germans (both with Volksturm impressed infantry and elite panzers) and then a wall of Italians dashed themsleves against the Maginot line for a large victory for the Flems and Walloons

 

Pictures and a report to come

 

 

 

 

Warhamster

Played another game of Warhamster on Tuesday - the 2nd with my new whizzy 10mm figures. My Greeks just about beat an Indian army, after we both worked out that shooting is only one attack per base, not the number of attacks given in the army lists (which must be for combat only).

10mm figures look really good - if they had been around 15 years ago, I doubt there would be much 15mm being played now - or then again maybe we'd be onto 8mm or 7mm instead!!

I remain to be fully convinced by Warhamster - nice simple game, and definately has some more depth than it first appears, however the ability of bodies of troops to jump around the table still feels odd - or certainly not in line with my view of what ancient warfare consisted of.

In many of the games I have played it also is a lot of dancing about, and then one "super-unit" charges in and knocks down 2 or 3 enemy units and then bounces off, either alive or dead - and that seems to decide the game. It will be interesting at Devizes to see how the rules stand up to competition - I can't help feeling they are fine if people "play nicely" but whether they work as well when people want to win remains to be seen.

Pulp Birmingham

Or, Why Joey Miller really wants to make the US team for Ghent ...

The famous Trout of The Confederacy

Steve & Adam discover the truth behind those internet rumours outside The Museum of The Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia

The end of the Line

We are now ending our epic journey. Antietam yesterday finished our Civil war odessey, and vodka and red bull finished us generally. Back to the airport for the flight home......

manassas

First Bull Run

Walking the field right now. Sun is shining. Sky is blue. And there are lots of those clever fences that all three of us are thinking how we can make out of matchsticks!

The end of the Campaign is in sight!

Yesterday we covered land and sea, modern and old, by taking in the USS Wisconsin at Norfolk Virginia's Naval museum, and then the museum and battlefield tour of the British defeat (!!) at Yorktown in the American War of Independance. Apparently we almost accidentally surrendered to the French, so a narrow escape there then....

The Wisconsin is rather large and very grey,

..and the Yorktown site is fantastic - a really American place, in that it allows drive through tours, where you dont even have to get out of the car to see some of the sights and read the information boards.

We ended up in ex Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, and today our agenda should include the museum here, then a trip to Manassas and Antietam ("Anne-tee-tam"). The Museum of Aviation near Dulles Airport is on the list for Friday.

Unfortunately the business centre computeres in the places we have been staying recently are cleverly put together, and I cant upload photos from my camera to them, but there will be plenty coming in the next few weeks !

18th - Wednesday

We are now in Winston-Salem, a traditional town where the residents still believe the Prime Minister of England is a Witch.

Yesterday we attempted to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway whilst listening to Bluegrass music and spitting chewed corn cobs out of the car window every 200 yeards. This proved somewhat difficult as the Parkway was closed - for no apparent reason.

Last night a local resident narrowly escaped a heavy beating, as we walked 6 blocks to find what our guidebook described as the best restaurant in Winston Salem, as all three of us had just about reached the EU legal limit for the number of fried and grilled meat based meals one is allowed to have in any one week, and we were desparate for "proper" food.

Unfortunately the restaurant was closing as we walked in (at 930pm), but the barman was able to helpfully recommend an alternative. When we asked him what it served, he volunteered the information "Oh yeah, they serve REALLY great Chicken Wings. And the Sandwiches and Ribs are excellent too...."

He will live his life not knowing how lucky he was...and we are one step closer to believing Clarkson is right - here is more Top Gear

textbook stuff

We saw both types of music in Nashville, watched baseball in Chattanooga, and now are on the road listening to Springsteen.

What's not to like?

3 Bars

3 versions of "Sweet Home Alabama". Welcome to the South

heckle That !

Right now all 3 of us are in a bar where someone (a mid 40s mousey haired glasses wearing librarian/hairdresser) has just shouted out a request to the band for a song by Conway Twitty loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the band. .

Now, That is what I call entertainment....

Boy Band of NICT?

Note the remarkable similarity between Scott "baseball cap and hoodie" Jeske and any member you wish to choose of Boy-band Backstreet Boys??

Rumour on the North American DBM circuit is that Jeske was an original member, but found the competition from the other five members in the original lineup of the band was too intense.

However he has taken counselling since then, allowing him to succesfully become The American Continents Best DBM Player This Year For Sure Uncontested etc etc etc as NICT Invitaional Champion where he won from a similarly sized field of , erm, 6

Hilton Nearly Kills us All

Before the tourney started we took a late night ride to Hooters with Hilton in his mobile Roy Orbison Shrine/Widescreen Cinema



Handsfree driving means something different in the UK. At least he had only been drinking Miller Lite !

Steve Royle on Monorail at Gatwick

In Britain today there are many people like Steve.

But they are all special, and need our support

Please send your donations to

BHGS

The White Cottage....

Me Collecting the Winning trophy In Birmingham

The information published by the Yanks is all lies!! This Marc Crotteau bloke (on the right) is NOT accepting the "best Placed Non Brit" award donated by me, Steve & Adam - he's giving the winners prize to ME, honest!!!

Is there a Hooters in Ascot...?

Me with my new friend Hollie on the first evening in Birmingham Alabama.

I suspect will never quite have the same degree of positive sentiment about the offerings of the the curry house in Ascot ....

Finally...

We had more time than I thought, so after the CinC command was almost totally eliminated by the Germans some light horse sacked the Jewish baggage and the final element came as the elite of the Judean army, some Ax S came out of the rough to take on my light horse.... And lost on a 6-1 !!!!!

.

Steve lost to Steve Payne, so Marc Crotteau wins.

What a weekend!

Now for the holiday - more reports to come.

Photos to follow of our evenings out in a few days, and full game reports in more depth in a few weeks.

.

Yee Hah !!

ps - Talledega Speedway actually exists as a real place - we saw it! We thought it was made up for the film!!

Almost!

Got the CinC but still need 3 more elements. And I can't see them .

Need to work out how much time is left

The Teutons have a lot of dead stuff to wade through

Still grinding on

Germans are nearly in but there are a lot of judeans to kill here and I'm making no progress with the rest of my army as it has been becalmed with had pips for a few turns.

The Parthians

Are about to go I think. All 4 cats killed by wagon action. This will bring the Germans online, and allow me to go on the offensive.

My aux attack has virtually petered out on my right...

So far

Its all very bitty but the teutons are still unreliable.

I am having to mess about with wagons to try and create something as my army is rather toothless without the Germans.

My attack on the right with the aux has stalled due to poor pips.

The only opp is to pick on the Parthians with wagons and try and make a hole in the line to get the Germans online again.

.

Its started

The teutons are unreliable with a line of bd I facing them!! Doh!

But there may be a chance to push on my right over some ps I with my auxilia and flank some Bw I

So, I will attack anyway!

Sunday am

I'm lying in 6th or 7th, playing Ricky and his Later Judeans. Lots of terrain here so far. A morning of extracting auxilia I feel....

Steve is in the hot seat as far as is Brits go, sitting in 4th

1:25am

We are in a redneck Karroke Bar in the middle of nowhere. We only recognise 10% of the artists on the juke box. There are adverts for the NASCAR special bargain deal (it involves Bud and free ham).

This is why we came !

2-14 !!

The auxilia in my big command rush to their death against a demoralised cavalry ordinary general ( with an overlap) 1-6, whilst I wash up 1 element short of his CinCs command, and kill the cinc - with 6 dead already so if Mike had had to roll pips again I would have won 14-2

Wild!

Phew!

Teutons have gone!

I'm on the brink!!!

Re: The warband

Collapse!!!! A couple of 6-1s and the huge command turns tail and flees! My own command is teetering on the brink facing it though and there is nothing between my baggage and 5 CmS when my command inevitably falls....

I have to hoover up the CinC before this happens.... 4 down, 4 to go, but they are hard to kill Cv and hard to catch LH!

The warband

Are running riot, aided by camels, but more by my desparate pip dice! 1 2 1 1 for the command facing these 2 commands in the last 4 turns. 32 pips in response! This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

The warband!

Are out of the rough and into my light horse. Plus one rapidly relocated Teuton

Quick start

Both armies are keen to get to grips.

The Arabs have shifted their camel corps into face my Teutons, and the Cv S have wheeled to protect a flank!

Game 3

Against Mike McGee and his Christian Nubians. Almost no terrain and I'm attacking. Could be interesting if I guess right or wrong on the camel and warband scenario...?

Finally tipped them over!

A dead general and 3 dead bowmen followed by poor pip dice means I take a command out of the blue! Then the flank also crumbles under weight of casualties.

15-0 to me!

.

Going well...

The sicilians have all 4 generals engaged, but then roll 6666!!!!

But the liths are starting to find flanks....

And the wagons are shooting well....

And the. Art S has killed 3 bows

The enemy army

Seems to have little in it for me to hit.....?

Sicilian!

2nd game, Mark, Sicilian, defending again, and a good burger and 2 pints of bud for lunch!!!! This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

7-4 win (6-4 with 15-0)

2 other commands were within 1 element of breaking, but my CinC was close to going down.

its now raining

just like home really.

Action!

Got the flank command! This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

Still going

Slowly pushing on. Dan is being tormented by bad pips! One of his commands is on the ropes against my right wing cav and lh command

In the thick of it now..

Cavalry engaged on my right, but blades closing in in the Bw X... This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

Excitement!!

Some of my troops have just wheeled! The first bit of recognisable tactics from the lithuanians!!

.

.This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

Setup complete

There are a lot of bow in this bedouin army. But ive screened off a lot of the table to mass my attack on my right, and the artillery S has surprised him as its part of the flank screening force on the left side with all the terrain. Fortunately the. Arab bw X are not teed up against my Teutons and may have to wheel across my blades to get to them. Which may be tricky!!!! Looks like he's going to try though.... Interesting.

.

.  This email is from Reed Exhibitions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 678540, whose registered office is at Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom.  This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 8910 7910 and remove it from your system. The opinions expressed within this communication are not necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions Limited. Visit our website at http://www.reedexpo.com

Game 1

Dan hazlewood and dynastic bedouin. No terrain except in one corner (my side). Oh, and he's seen my list on this site! Surprise!

Different country, same experience.

25 minutes wait for the doors to open before we can get in. I've now done this in the UK, Spain, Greece, France, Italy AND The USA.....

roadkill!

We've just seen a coyote roadkill!!!!!

we are here!

We've landed at Atlanta and collected our baggage - twice! And we are now crossing a timezone in Marks Truck. The sun is shining, the weather is warm. Missing Ascot already.....

Gatwick Airport Friday Morning

Tim, Steve & Adam sample British Airways Loungfe hospitality. Very pleasant...

Gatwick Airport

We are currently starting our first glass of wine of the day in the BA club class lounge.

And its quite nice indeed.

America here we come!

Glad were only going to Tenessee !

A Louisiana pawn shop saw a father give his 2-year old toddler a lesson in how to use an AK 47.

BJ's shop owner said the man kept repeating "anybody in front of you, you can mow them down. Kill everybody, soldier, because daddy's going to buy you this chopper."

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/11534890/detail.html

Now can someone tell me more of this 'Hooters'....?

It is a fine dining establishment where the cuisine is only
surpassed by the expertise and efficiency of the servers.

They are known for their Buffalo Wings and Beer selection.

To see the menu please click on a link below:

Pumpin' on your Stereo...In Birmingham

Time to get in some practice - I am told there are radio stations which only play this song.



I hope we can tune into some of them !

But How Safe Will We Be ?

Our plan will involve driving across Alabama, Georgia & Virginia after the competition.

Will it be like this - but without the slogans...?

Press play and stand back....



George Bush, God & Country & Western.......

Keep On Trucking !

This is the sort of email a Brit can only dream of getting when you plan a trip to The Deep South....

"Tim,Hi,

My name is Mark Faircloth. I will be going to the Tournament in B'ham from Atlanta. I can provide a pickup from and return to the airport. Based on what I have read so far I will be at the airport at 5pm.

I have attached a picture of my truck.

I will wait outside until 5 or I hear from you, then I will begin circling the pickup lanes.Also, how many will we be picking up?"

I just hope we can all find ourselves check shirts to wear when we get there....

The Belgians are Coming!

After a short bit of painting, the Belgians are now speeding ahead, and the finish post is in sight already! This is a rather grainy photo from my mobile phone.

Black undercoat, white drybrush, khaki paint job and half way through the backpacks...

Polish Cavalry!

Oh No! I've just ordered some Polish WW2 cavalry from True North Miniatures!

I only wanted sowe Italian 1/144th scale aircraft transfers, but as the ££ $$ ratio is so good it seemed a good chance to get some more 15mm PBI stuff!!

Better hurry up and paint the Belgians before the Poles arrive really. This means the 10mm Warhamster boys are on hold for a while too...

The 10mm Greeks

Currently I'm painting some 10mm Greeks for Warhamster.

And some of the Peltasts do look rather camp - there appear to be two types, some with thigh-high boots, and some with bare legs and very short skirts!

Welcome to my wargames blog

With the "Main" blog becoming increasingly divergent from the core subject of the Madaxeman.com site, I've instigated another Wargame-themed blog.

The theory is that this one may allow me to post "live" updates from competitions and other events. How exciting!

The downside is that it may be a little thin when I'm not at a competition....