Claymore 2022: Good enough!

 Introduction

There haven't been many wargame shows over the last 3 years.  Here in Scotland, they have been slow to restart, with Carronade (Falkirk) as the only major show to happen in 2021.  This year (2022), it looks as if Claymore (Edinburgh) will be the only big show.  Oh, well - better one show than none at all.

This post is about our experiences at Claymore 2022.  It's a very personal account and as such is a record of our experiences and activities.  If you were expecting a full description of the entire show then you might be disappointed.

Travel

As usual, we had to drive some 2 hours to reach the venue.  It's not a good location for public transport, especially if one is starting from outside Edinburgh itself.  We (well, I - as the driver) did get slightly lost in north-east Edinburgh on the final approach, but this was soon corrected and only cost us a few minutes.  My excuse is that it has been several years since my last visit to Claymore and I had forgotten one of the last turns.  Oh, well - no great damage.

One difference from before was that this time we had a party of three: myself, my son A. and a friend N. from the Helensburgh games club (HAHA).

Game 1: Tank Golf!

Before we had even finished an initial tour of all the halls in which the show was taking place, we were grabbed by a group who invited us to play a quick & simple game of tank golf (?!).

The serious part of this is that during the Japanese invasion of Singapore (in World War 2), some of the fighting took place on & around a (British) golf course.  Our hosts had a wealth of information on the area.  This included pointing out which areas had now been redeveloped as a highway, where undisturbed graves were thought to be located and so on.  All very serious stuff.

Then the game: each of us was given command of a Japanese tank.  The object was to drive it from the tee to the green within the fewest possible moves.  Apparently, this hole was a par 5, so anything under 5 moves would earn bonus points.

Oh, while we were doing this, we could shoot at entrenched British infantry - and they might shoot back with Boyes anti-tank rifles and a 2pdr anti-tank gun.

4 tanks lined up, ready to start (as there were 3 of us, one vehicle wasn't used).  I had the one on the extreme left, with the white dice)

After 4 turns, I made it to the flag.  Since this was one under par, I scored a birdie.  Also, I managed to shoot one of the ATRs, scoring a bonus point.

This was a quick and simple game with a very engaged set of hosts.  The only think I would say against it is that the movement was completely random; as players we didn't really have any decisions to make (well, we chose which target to try to shoot - but that was almost irrelevant in determining the overall outcome).  It would have been nice if we could have chosen which gear to use, or the direction to head, or even whether to observe from the hatch or button up.  I think the organisers missed a trick here, though it was still a fun little diversion.

Game 2: Test of Resolve

Just before lunch (and the timing might just have affected my son's concentration 😄), we joined in another game.  This was set during the Wars of the Roses and played with the Test of Resolve rules (under development?  Already published?  I'm not clear on this).  Again, the organisers were very keen and incredibly thorough on their topic.

So, we played an ambush.  My son and a stranger took a column of evil Yorkist loyalists who were advancing along a road.  N. and I took 2 commands of noble Lancastrian rebels who were hiding in the nearby woods in ambush.

My Lancastrians waiting to ambush from the woods at the bottom.  Unwary Yorkists keep to the road.

The trap is sprung a bit too early, as the Yorkist scouts see me waiting.

Battle is joined!  Initially, damage seems light, but entire commands can disintegrate very suddenly.  This happened to the other part of the Lancastrian command as it charged from the far wood - though at least they did take some of the enemy with them.

Feeling somewhat desperate, with slightly inferior troops and outnumbered by about 3:2, I staked everything on a swift charge.  Miraculously, I crashed through and scattered my son's advancing Yorkists with minimal damage to myself.  That left just one enemy battle to go.  They put up a stiffer fight, but my remaining troops finally managed to rout them and the field was ours!

I feel a bit conflicted by this game:

• On the one hand, I wanted to like it.  If nothing else, the enthusiasm and background knowledge of the presenters requires some form of reward.
• On the other hand, the movement abilities of the troops seemed a bit stilted, morale seemed to be accounted for twice (once by individual unit status and again by a pile of tokens for each command) and the combat results seemed very unpredictable (anything from no real effect to complete disintegration - situation and troop quality seemed to play only a very minor part).

My experience was only very brief, of course - and late medieval civil war is not really one of my main  interests.  I'd suggest that anyone with a real desire to play games in this period should find out more and make up their own minds.

Eye Candy

There were some very pretty display games at the show.  This one particularly caught my eye: it's a samurai-era naval battle:

I believe that all the ship models are made by Scheltrum, though I could have misheard that.

Here's a random picture of the Sports Hall (i.e the smaller-sized part of the venue).  The larger part of the show was in the entrance hall - but I didn't take pictures of that.  The layout in both is the same: games in the middle and traders around all the sides.

Game 3: Imjin River

Once again, we found a game with a very knowledgeable and dedicated host (there seems to be a pattern here!  Although I find it odd that this state of affairs should remarkable; engaged & competent game organisers ought to be the normal state of affairs at shows).

Our final game was a recreation of the battle of Imjin River, from the Korean war.  So, Chinese hordes are sweeping over the border and are only 20 miles from Seoul.  Can the vastly-outnumbered U.N. forces (in the shape of the British Gloucestershire regiment) delay them enough for a proper defense to be organised?

This game was notable for at least two things:

1. The terrain was superb!  The boards were topographically accurate, having been built from maps of the actual location.  I was even told that the vertical scale was correctly proportioned - this land is really rugged.
2. The game wasn't reset for each group of players.  Rather, we picked up the situation from where it had been left by earlier players.  I was told that our finishing situation would be recorded and set up as the start point for the next show which the game would visit (Partizan?  I probably didn't remember this correctly).  The entire battle would thus play out over several sessions throughout the show season.

So, the U.N. forces have a lot of firepower (artillery and aircraft), but the Chinese have stupendous numbers of troops...

At the time we picked up the game, the Gloucesters had just received orders to pull back several of their battered companies (which had weathered intense attacks all through the previous night).

It was really scary leaving our tranches on the previous hill tops in order to run across the plains back to our supports.  Each red disk is a Chinese battalion (or regiment or something like that).  Our pale blue disks are companies.

Air power and superior command & control are great!  We didn't lose any of our units at all (though 'A' company in particular was roughly handled and had very few stands left by the end).  Note that another Chinese army is now crossing the river and heading towards the U.N. positions.

So, this was a very intense game.  From the U.N. perspective, the communist attacks felt completely relentless.  Even when we wiped out a Chinese unit there would always be another one along soon after.  I imagine that N. (who took the Chinese) must have felt frustrated, as almost all his strongest attacks melted away under the withering U.N. firepower.  But when a communist attack did make it through, when the artillery & aircraft were occupied elsewhere and the Gloucesters were in open ground, significant damage was caused.

I don't know what rules were used - whether they were commercial or home brew.  However, we all picked up the important points very quickly and they seemed to give realistic results.

The only criticism I would raise is that there were a lot of small markers for various levels of damage, ambush status and the like.  These didn't always stay with the correct stand of figures, especially when models were balanced on steep hillsides.  A better solution would have been to integrate the markers more closely with the stands, either by swapping out models for "damaged" ones, or by giving each stand magnetised markers, posts for "damage rings" or some other mechanism for recording status.

Overall, this was a very impressive and enjoyable game, about a significant historical event.

Conclusion

This last game took us up to departure time.  I haven't mentioned our wanderings around the trade stands (there was plenty of that), or a couple of visits to the Bring-and-Buy room (the first time it was absolutely mobbed; later on not quite so busy).

Travel home was easy enough, taking almost exactly 2 hours of driving.  At least we had plenty to talk about!  Overall, it was a good show for me.  One good game, two acceptable ones and a certain amount of talk and shopping.

Ah, yes - the loot:

So, in no particular order:

• Some new sets of rules.  Not that I really intend to play them, but just because I'm curious.
• A box of Living Dead Peasants.  These are probably destined to become Mindless in my Viking-themed undead army for SAGA: Age of Magic.
• Matt varnish.  I use a fair amount of this stuff and courier deliveries suck, so I try to buy it in person at any shows I visit.
• More Perry Samurai.  Although technically these are peasants, probably destined to join my scruffy force of bandits.
• More prehistoric goodness from Stone Axe Miniatures, as supplied by Iron Gate Scenery.  This time I have a Megaloceros family (giant Irish Elk) and some goats (generic small grazers).
• Finally, a Club biscuit - my prize for winning the Tank Golf game.

Claymore 2019: Hot Work!

Introduction

My #2 son and I have been attending the Claymore wargames show in Edinburgh for a number of years now.  It's always on in early August, so last weekend we took ourselves across the country for this event.  We had a good time, but perhaps not a great one, as you will find out if you read on.

Part of the atrium room.  Note the greenhouse-like ceiling: it has plenty of light, but is very hot on a  summer afternoon.

As always, we played some games, did some sightseeing and bought some stuff.

Game 1: Playmobil Gunslingers

We had seen this game at at least one other Scottish show earlier this year, but it always seemed to be booked up.  This time, we were early and played a quick, 2-player match.  I took the local sheriff, his 2 deputies and a couple of upstanding citizens who had volunteered to help.  Opposing me, my son had 5 bandits; these had a secret agenda and I was not aware of their plans.

The sheriff's posse are in front of the jail; the bandits are in the far distance

Both parties advanced to meet near the stagecoach.  For some reason, the bandit leader climbed onto the top of the coach.

After a short exchange of gunfire, 3 outlaws/bandits were down (including their leader, blown off the stagecoach by a blast from a double-barrelled shotgun).  None of the posse were hurt.

The remaining 2 bandits fled, leaving the sheriff and townsfolk unscathed.  A very one-sided affair...

This game was short and brutal.  In part, that was because of runs of good & bad dice by the respective sides (the sheriff's men were probably rolling above average and the bandits below par).  However, I couldn't help feeling that it would have been a much better experience if there had been more players.  At the very least, there wouldn't have been the same temptation to just march into the centre and open fire with everything 😃.

Game 2: Rhodesian Scouts

Just before lunch, we stopped at a very nice-looking table and were invited to play a game on it.  This was a co-operative affair, with A. and I each taking a 4-man squad of elite Rhodesian light infantry to try to rescue and extract some scouts (these were hiding out in the large rock formation at the far end of the table).  Of, course, the area was swarming with ZAMLA (?) militia...

My squad, hiding out in some elephant grass.

The game mechanics involved movement from landmark to landmark.  Some of these landmarks provided soft cover, some were classed as hard cover and some gave no cover at all.

In the very first action of the game, one of A.'s troopers was shot dead whilst crossing open ground in an attempt to find cover.  This seemed like a very bad omen, but our 2 squads then managed to leapfrog most of the way up the table without taking anything worse than the occasional pin or suppression marker.  In return, we saw off large numbers of enemies.

At one point, we called in a gunship helicopter.  It proceeded around the edge of the table creating havoc amongst the ZAMLA troops, until it reached the far end...

...where it came across the one enemy squad that was armed with an RPG.  A lucky shot from this weapon saw our gunship crash and burn, much to our disgruntlement!

Finally, we reached the scouts and called in our evacuation helicopter.  I think the pilot was cursing us roundly for having chosen such an awkward landing spot, but he managed to put the aircraft down safely.

The 2 scouts and the 3 remaining members of A's squad embarked without too much difficulty, but ZAMLA troops were closing in.  Despite our use of smoke grenades to try to obscure our forces, the helicopter took several bullets and my squad leader was pinned down.

With everyone else on board (including the 2 scouts, on whose safety victory or defeat was solely determined) , the pilot took off without waiting for my last guy.  Plenty of militia shot at the helicopter as it left, but somehow it managed to stagger away, damaged.  We had won the game!

This was a very engaging game, with high levels of tension throughout.  The models were nicely done; the scenery was excellent and our hosts were friendly and enthusiastic.  Congratulations to them!

My only mild disappointment was that the wildlife was purely decorative; the cheetah, antelopes and girafe played no part in the game 😃.  Also, I feel bad about abandoning my squad leader...

Sightseeing

Age of Sail

I don't normally take many photos of non-participation games, but this one stood out for me.

It was a very beautiful Napoleonic naval game put on by (I think) the "Border Reivers".  Models were 1:600 scale, so the larger ships were probably around 6" (15cm) long.

They had a rather nice coastline running along one end of the board, with a port and associated gun emplacements.  The scenic backdrop definitely helps to give the illusion of depth here!

For me, one of the most stunning parts of this display was to discover that the ship models were paper!  That's right; each design is a print-and-build PDF document with instructions on the gauge and lengths of wire to be used for the rigging.

I was told that they were quite simple to build, but I've done quite a bit of card modelling in my time and I'm impressed.  They may be straightforward to make (though I have my doubts ), but each ship must have taken a considerable amount of time to finish.

Of course, once the initial design has been bought, it can be reused as many times as desired.  I was shown some crippled and/or sinking models that had been made from the same kits, though these were not needed at the relatively early stage of the battle in my photos.

Sudan

For my own reference, I took some pictures of a large Omdurman-campaign Sudan game.  I was more interested in the scenery than the Mahdist vs British action (though the figures were very nice too).

Fortunately for me, they had a "cheat sheet" listing where all the components had been found.

Unfortunately, the Arab town is only listed as "eBay purchase", which doesn't really help me at all.  Oh, well.

On the other hand, the ruins are ex-PMC, now available from Caliver Books.  I would never have thought to look there for items like that, but I think it quite likely that I'll purchase these in due course now that I've seen them.

Shopping

I had quite a long list of items that I wished to find, although most of these were "might be nice" rather than "must have".  In the end, I found most of them, with one very big exception (more later on this).

Our purchases were enhanced by tombola wins from the SSAFA charity stall.  We were one of the first groups (if not the very first?) to buy tickets.  Out of 8 tickets each, I won 4 prizes and A. won 3; this is enormously above my expectations for such an event!  Indeed, we were so embarrassed by this that we immediately donated about half of our wins straight back, so that the charity could reuse them.  Mind you, this isn't altogether as altruistic as it sounds; these were items that we didn't have any use for; they would just have gathered dust and taken space had we kept them.

So, my loot pile is as follows:

• MDF bases from Warbases.  Mostly round (of various sizes), but with some pill bases as well.
• "Over the Hills" Napoleonic wargames rules (from the SSAFA tombola).
• An "RAF" keyring torch/flashlight (also an SSAFA win), plus a wristband and pen given to us by the same place.
• SAGA Age of Magic dice: "Order" and "Magic".
• SAGA objectives.  Some beautifully-detailed resin pieces.
• Norman infantry, for my under-construction SATA warband.
• Green spray paint, for model bamboo.  I may talk about this more in another article...
• Some Milky Bar sweets, won for participating in the Playmobil shootout.

A. had enough of a loot haul to warrant a separate picture:

• Tau stealth suits, from the Bring-n-Buy hall.
• 8th Army models (SSAFA tombola prize)
• A large collection of Yugioh cards (Bring and Buy)
• 2 pens and a wristband (SSAFA)
• A. had already eaten his Milky Bar buttons by the time we took this picture, so they're not shown here.

Conclusion

Edinburgh is quite a long drive for me; it's very tiring.  On the trip homeward, I had to stop in Stirling just so I could find some coffee and take a break.

Good Points

• We did get to play some games: one was fair and the other was very good.
• I found most of what I wanted to buy.
• A. scored some good stuff in the Bring-n-Buy.

Not so good

• There were a number of "no shows" at Claymore 2019, through no fault of the organisers.  From memory this may have been as many as 4 games and 2 traders.  One of these traders was a company that I had particularly noted; I had intended to make a fairly sizeable purchase from them.
• There didn't seem as many participation games as I would have liked.  Of course, there were several that we had seen earlier in the year at other shows; we tried to leave these available for other players who hadn't yet encountered them.  Even so, demonstration games outnumbered participation games by quite a wide margin.

So, this ends the show season in Scotland for 2019, at least as far as I'm concerned.  It's been a busy year, with 2 new events in Glasgow (one was a one-off; the other will be repeated next year) as well as my regular attendance at Carronade and Claymore.  Now that the shows are all over, I need to find time to paint some of the stuff I have accumulated!

Claymore 2018: A Personal Account

Introduction

I've been away from blogging for a bit.  Some of that is because I was away for my summer holiday (near Dufftown in Moray, the "whisky capital of the world"), but that's not all of it.  The truth is that I just didn't feel like doing anything much.  I'm sure this malaise will pass - it always has done so in the past - but for now I'm still not feeling very inspired.

Anyway, on with the show!

Claymore 2018

Claymore is one of Scotland's largest wargames shows, if not the biggest.  It's not as large as the very biggest such events in the world (such as London's Salute), but Claymore is quite big enough for me.  It has a good variety of games and traders - certainly enough to fill a one-day show.  This year we concentrated a bit more on shopping rather than playing games, as you will see...

Game 1: Carry On up the Khyber

One of the things I remember from my childhood (some 40 years ago) was watching films in the Carry On... series.  These were cheaply-made British comedies filled with slapstick and innuendo; some of them were very funny and others...less so.  "Carry On up the Khyber" was one of the better movies, as I recall.  It was set during the the British Raj and the events supposedly took place near the Khyber pass.

Anyway, my son A. and I joined two other players for this game.  Each commanded a couple of bands of Burpa tribesmen, with the aim of sacking the British residency compound.  A. also had the Burpa cavalry and the rebel leader (the Khazi of Kalabar), whilst I was in charge of the rebel's incompetent artillery piece & crew.  The defenders (the 3rd Foot & Mouth Highlanders, led by the British district commissioner Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond) were played by the umpire.

The game was hosted by the excellent Leuchars Veterans; I'm always pleased to find space at one of their tables.  They really know how to put on a short, pithy event with plenty of thrills and spills - at least such has been my experience.

So, what happened?

One of A's warbands fought its way into the compound, driving the defenders back in disarray.  Just at that moment, Lady Ruff-Diamond's pet tiger escaped, causing confusion and forcing everyone nearby (attackers and defenders) to retreat.  Bah!

Against the odds, my cannon eventually hit the residency's gate and demolished it.  I think the gunners were as surprised as everyone else!

An elephant briefly chased one of my units, but despite this our tribesmen poured over the defenses.  Indeed, we eliminated one unit of the Highlanders and had driven the last few stalwarts from the front door of the residency; all we needed was one more turn and we could have entered the building and captured it.  At that moment, an event card revealed a "Call to Prayer: all Burpa units retreat 12 inches".  Bah!!

We regrouped and threw everything forward once more, including the cavalry.  However, the defenders managed to block our path (just!) and hold on until the relief column arrived.  So, we lost the game - bah!!!

This was a fast and hectic game.  I haven't mentioned many of the other things which occurred (the rum ration to the British troops, Private Widdle's "accident" [figure it out for yourselves!], the lifting of the kilts...) because they didn't do much to change the course of the game.  They did however add a lot of flavour, especially for guys like me who can remember the original film.  In summary: 40 minutes well spent!

Intermission

After the Khyber game, A. and I wandered around for the rest of the morning.  We picked up pre-orders, made unplanned purchases and looked at various demo games.

Once again, we bought tickets for the SSAFA (armed forces charity) tombola. I won nothing (as usual), but A. had 3 winning tickets out of 6.  He's had this sort of luck before, yet I keep forgetting to get him to enter the lottery.  On reflection, he's probably too young to be able to buy lottery tickets legally anyway.

Finally, we had an early picnic lunch in the venue's courtyard (the weather being very nice) before heading back inside.

Game 2: Raiders of the Last Crusade (?)

I forget the exact name used for this game at the show, but it's something like the above.  Anyway, this was a 4-way event using the popular Lion Rampant rules and set in the Middle East during the Crusades.  So far, so good.

What made this event particularly interesting, I think, was that it is one output of a collaboration between academics and wargamers.  The academics are historians from the University of Edinburgh who are interested in new teaching methods & outreach programs, whilst the wargamers are represented by Supreme Littleness (a relatively small company, but one which produces some rather useful MDF kits) and others.  Read about the full project here.

Anyway, back to the game.  Byblos castle is owned by Lady Contarini (a Christian).  Two Arab warbands descend upon the nearby village, intent on pillage and plunder.  We (A. and I) controlled Aybeg's group.  The other raiding band had a "B" name which I forgot, so let's call its leader Bashir for this report.  A fourth side was provided by some Templars who were riding to the Lady's rescue.

Of course, there was friction between all of the 4 groups; each had its own set of objectives.  For example, our leader Aybeg wanted to show that he was a better raider than his subordinate Bashir.  The Templars were trying to put pressure on the Contarinis to hand over control of the castle ... and so on.  This rivalry could even lead to fighting between forces which were nominally on the same side; anything was permitted!

Initially, Bashir's force engaged both the Templars and Lady Contarini's garrison.  Although they had considerable success in these fights, they also took quite a few casualties.  Aybeg was secretly quite pleased with this!

In such a confined space, action was thick and fast.

• Bashir's wild infantry destroyed all of the castle garrison who had sallied forth, but was much reduced in potency as a consequence of such severe fighting.
• Our (i.e. Aybeg's) infantry fought the Templar sergeants to mutual destruction.
• The Templar cavalry proved to be remarkably resilient.  Although repeated attacks by the Muslim heavy cavalry had reduced the unit to just 2 figures, they just wouldn't give up and run away like normal people!

At the end of the game:

• Bashir's battered remnants fled with all the loot they could lay their hand upon (worth 5 points, as a shepherd was found to have an extra pouch of money hidden in his clothing!).
• The castle's archers finally made it to the bottom of the tower, but it was too late for them either to rescue any of the villagers or to avenge their Lady.  0 points.
• The Templar heavy cavalry made a decisive charge against Aybeg's nobles (helped by a disastrous decision of mine not to counter-charge - on the basis that the knights were too weak to achieve much).  They drove the Muslims away from the young lad who had been in their clutches a moment before.  Turns out that this little scamp was the nephew of Lady Contarini and it would be very useful for the Templars to hold him during their negotiations for purchase of the castle from the Contarini family.  4 points to them!
• Aybeg's untouched light cavalry swept through the village, gathering up all the remaining fleeing villagers for a total of 9 points and a clear victory.  In your face, Bashir!

After this success, we wandered around for a bit longer.  There were some other participation games which we might have played, but these were setups that we had seen at earlier shows.  Although neither A. nor I would have minded having another go, there were plenty of other folks wanting to play them and we felt it best to let them have that experience instead of us.

There were 2 more participation games listed in the program that I was quite keen to try, but both locations just had empty tables.  For whatever reason, they were "no show".

So, we left a little early and started the long journey back in the car, stopping only at a motorway service station near Stirling so that I could have some coffee.  Otherwise this was an unremarkable drive and we arrived home in time for dinner.

Loot

No show report is ever complete without a picture of the acquisitions, right?  Well, here's my haul:

From left to right, top to bottom:

• Brushes!  I don't remember seeing a trader selling just brushes, palettes and related items before.  They seemed to be doing a roaring trade, at least when we were there.
• Paints.  More shades of grey and brown.
• A Dice Masters base set (D&D), from the Bring and Buy table.
• Some Copplestone spy/thriller miniatures.  Mostly goons/thugs of various sorts.
• Lucid Eye cavemen and Neanderthals.  More Paleo Diet games are on the horizon, I think!
• Varnish aerosol, always bought at shows to avoid expensive courier fees, since the regular parcel service won't carry spray cans any more.
• 2 books, one on Napoleonic Ottoman armies (a bit of a pipe dream of mine) and the other on painting Dark Age figures.  Turns out that the latter isn't quite what I was after...
• A flock of sheep from 1st Corps, done as a single base.  Should look really good!
• Some laser-cut crosses and crescents given as a prize for taking part in the "Raiders" game.  Not sure what I'll do with these.
• Plastic Arab infantry, for my slow-burn Saracen army (for SAGA).
• Several Pulp/Lost Earth models from Antediluvian Miniatures, bought at a discount.
• A.'s tombola winnings: 2 x plastic spoon/fork/knife combos plus lanyards with "RAF" on them.  Also a camouflage jacket!  Not quite my type of fashion, but I think that A. now fancies himself as a sniper or a member of the SAS or something like that.
• [Not pictured: an order of 24 figures from Warlord Games which I hope to convert into something for my "Wicked Witch" Hordes of the Things army.  Stay tuned...]

And so ends another show year for me.  I've now got another 84 figures to paint (plus 1 flock of sheep), so I'd better get cracking!  Might take a while...

Claymore 2017

Introduction

Last Saturday was the date for Claymore, one of the 2 large wargaming shows in Scotland that I try to attend each year (the other is Carronade, held in Falkirk during May).  As is my custom for several years, I took my middle son (A.); he's turning out to be very keen on gaming days!

It's about a 2 hour drive from Helensburgh to Edinburgh.  I don't enjoy it much, but it must be tolerated if we're to have such a day out.  'nuff said.

Arrival

We reached the Edinburgh College venue some 20 minutes before the official opening time.  However, we were able to walk right in; plenty of folk were already there and we were by no means the first visitors.  It's nice not having to queue!

The first thing we did was to buy some tombola tickets from the SSAFA charity stall that was near the front entrance.  Of course, all of my tickets were losers - which I didn't mind at all as I regarded the small amount of purchase money as a donation anyway.  A. then defied the odds by winning on 3 of his 4 chances.  The prizes were mostly books on obscure subjects that will probably not be of much interest to us, but if nothing else this good fortune set us in an upbeat mood for the rest of the day!

Game 1: Relic Knights

We encountered Relic Knights at Carronade earlier in the year and enjoyed the game very much.  The Glasgow Games Group (G3) were back again; this time demonstrating the new, not-quite-released (?) 2nd (or is that 1.5th?) edition.  Would we like another game?  You bet!

So, I took some Star Corsairs.  I had an evil pirate chief and his mermaid cypher (familiar), a fallen knight and some scurvy underlings.  Oh, and a large energy cannon!  Our goal was to raid the planet; our objectives were an arcade game and a chocolate-vending machine.  Hmm, I think I might have aimed for something a little higher myself - but everyone has to start somewhere.

A. was defending; he had a poser hero (come on: anyone who wears a trench coat over a bare chest is a poser, even if it's a white trench coat.  Or they're a pervert, but that's not a line I wish to follow...)  He also had a couple of gals with big spanners, a bunch of street thugs and a very annoying princess dressed in a white skirt along with her rabbit-like cypher/familiar.  His goal was to reach the communication towers and call for help (what - don't they have mobile phones on this planet?)

• My knight flew over a building to try to ransack the coin box from the arcade machine, but he was stymied by A.'s thugs.
• The cannon gained a good, solid hit on the enemy princess; when the smoke cleared she wasn't there any more.  I hadn't killed her, though; she'd merely been whisked away to safety by her cypher.  Still, A.'s forces were a bit more circumspect after that!

• My cannon scored several more crippling hits, but didn't quite wipe out the enemy street thugs (the last model in the unit was left on 1 hit point)
• The pirate chief strode forward and took out the poser in the white trench coat with a single attack.
• Princess Malya shot my fallen knight in the back and felled him.
• After scoring 1VP for stealing some chocolate from the vending machine, my raiders traded blows with the pit crew.  I came off worse and lost my unit, but the cannon got revenge by obliterating the victors.
• The last remaining street thug moved round the back of the secondary communication tower and spent 2 turns calling for help, despite my mermaid/cypher's repeated psychic attempts to dislodge her.

The final turn was really nail-biting and could have gone differently if my pirate chief had been able to reach the comms tower and interrupt the call for help (he was 1/4" too far away).  End result: 4VP to the Cerci Speed Circuit (defenders) and 3VP to the Star Corsairs.  A. steals a win from under my nose!

Game 2: Fury

Another game that we had seen at Carronade 2017 (but hadn't been able to get close to) was Fury, put on by the Leuchars Veterans.  They've run some very entertaining games in the past and I was keen to give this a go.

For anyone who hasn't seen the film ("Fury", of course), I'm not going to give too much away.  Suffice it to say that we had 4 Shermans versus 1 Tiger I, facing each other across a mostly-empty field.  Not really a good position to be in..

The Shermans were distributed randomly; I was given control of the mighty Fury whilst A. had the lowly Lucy Sue.  We charged forwards as fast as possible, laying down as much smoke as we were able.

The Tiger manoeuvred in a strange way and we ended up forming a firing line behind it at very close range.  I managed to set its engine alight before the other 76mm-armed Sheman blew the turret off.  Total casualties to the Americans?  Lucy Sue lost a track and could only turn right.

We came away from this game feeling slightly dissatisfied.  The models were beautiful; the premise for the game was reasonable and it flowed quickly enough.  However, something didn't quite gel.  Perhaps the movement rules were a bit too fluid and predictable, whilst the shooting rules were very random (requiring a series of high rolls to achieve anything much - not even much less for the Tiger!)  I don't regret participating - far from it - but it could have been better, I think...

Interlude

We ate our lunch outside in the courtyard, where there was plenty of seating and a little bit of occasional sunshine.  Having brought a packed lunch with us, we didn't have to wait in queues or suffer the indignities of show catering (though to be fair, I didn't even look at what the on-site canteen was selling.  They might have changed from the all-chips-and-pies fare they had on the last time I bought anything there, several years ago).

Game 3: Indonesia

The East Neuk Irregulars put on a small game with custom rules, based around a section of SAS troopers in Indonesia trying to reach a remote rendezvous in the 1960s.  This was a very lightweight affair, but quite fun all the same.  A. and I each took a squad of 4, but we decided to take different routes through the jungle.

• One of my men fell down a ravine and was lost.
• My remaining 3 men slaughtered quite a lot of local wildlife (one very dead pig, plus a clouded leopard which tried to attack me).  Note that I scared off the Orangutans; none of them were hurt.
• I lost another man in a firefight with Indonesian militia and a third to an ambush.

A. looked to be doing better for much of the route:

• A native guide led him into a militia patrol, which he managed to evade.
• One of his men succumbed to snake bite.
• Another man was lost in a firefight with militia.
• At the last moment, A. lost a third man to an ambush.

So, by the time we reached the opposite corner and the helicopter arrived, both squads had been reduced to 1 man each.  Hardly a resounding success, though apparently the record in this game is just 2 survivors from a single squad.  Hmm, I think it may be a bit heavily weighted against the SAS!  Ah, well - at least both of us escaped.

Homewards

We finished relatively early, in the mid afternoon.  After chatting to some old friends, both A. and I felt tired and I had a long drive home as well.  Perhaps more to the point, we'd done some shopping and played some games.  There weren't any other participation games that we were itching to try, so we decided to quit while we were ahead.

Loot

Obligatory loot list:

• Spray varnish (I always get this at shows now.  Since Royal Mail decided that they wouldn't carry aerosols, the only other option is a courier.  I'm not a big fan of courier firms delivering to domestic premises; they are expensive and seem to make quite a lot of mistakes).
• Arab heavy cavalry.  A. wants me to start a Saracen warband to oppose his fledgling crusader force for The Crescent and the Cross rules.  I haven't really got the free time to do this right now, but I bought some figure anyway...
• Some Pulp victims.  Who doesn't need a model of a woman tied between 2 stakes, about to be sacrificed to a volcano/giant ape/dinosaur/whatever unless the hero can reach her in time?
• 3 tombola prizes, still with the tickets attached: 2 books and some eau de toilette.
• The current edition of White Dwarf.  I'll flip through it before A. spirits it away.
• Purple paint.  Because I need some purple for a couple of current projects...
• Some certificates, rulers and other freebies from various participation games.

And there we have it, another year, another Claymore.  Time well spent.

Claymore 2016

Introduction

The largest wargames event in Scotland (Claymore) is held in early August.  In other years, we've often been away on holiday at this point, but this year I had arranged for our family vacation to be in the middle of July instead.  The 6th of August was free, so we were able to go to the show!

Although all of my children (and wife) were offered the opportunity, only my younger son ("A.") wanted to come with me.  He's extremely keen on games days such as this, so that made up for the (mild) disappointment from the more general lack of interest.

Our Day

It takes us just under 2 hours to drive from Helensburgh to north-west Edinburgh.  Let's just say that it's a tedious, though not particularly difficult, journey and leave it at that.

We arrived some 10 minutes before the official start time, but the doors were already open and many visitors had entered before us.  It's nice when you don't have to queue!

As always, what follows is a record of what A. and I did on the day.  It is not a comprehensive record of the games, traders or people present at Claymore, but rather just a description of our experiences.

SSFSA Tombola

Very near to the entrance, there was a tombola stall being run by the SSFSA (the armed forces charity).  We decided to spend some money on this and were surprised to find that both of us had won a prize.  I received a book on U.S. Rangers, whilst A.'s ticket matched a 28mm officer of Australian Light Horse!  I'm not sure what either of us will do with such items, as they're both quite a long way from any games or periods that we play...

Game 1: Wings of Glory

There were players needed in the first participation game that we came across, so we sat down to play some of the very popular Wings of Glory.  We were using 1916 aircraft; A. and I took a pair of French Morane Saulnier N monoplanes, whilst a couple of other young boys took some British clunkers to our right.  Opposing us were a mixture of German 2-seaters, eindeckers, observation balloons and the like.

I had enormous difficulty in working out the effects of the manoeuvre cards for most of the game.  I understood the mechanics easily enough, but found that my predictions of where my plane would end up were hopelessly adrift.  Consequently, I spent most of the game flying about pointlessly on the extreme left hand edge of the table.

Meanwhile, A's Morane was set on fire and eventually crashed.  He was given another, identical aircraft, but after tangling with the German 2-seaters, this was also set on fire.  A. flew off the table before burning to cinders, so perhaps his second plane survived?

Just as I had (almost) figured out how to manoeuvre and had lined up a good, tailing shot on an eindecker, I was hit by flak and killed.  Bah!

Game 2: Pancho Villa

The next game we encountered was a Bolt Action skirmish set during the Mexican civil war and presented by the Glasgow and District Wargames Club.  We took a bunch of Villistas (?) whose goal was to overpower the Federales in a small town and rob the about-to-depart gold train.  Sounds straightforward enough; we were told that we had about a 2:1 advantage in forces.

The game started well enough, as our American mercenary flier dropped a 75mm artillery shell onto one of the government machine gun positions.  He didn't hurt any of the crew, but he scared the cr*p out of them!

Our opponent in this game was a very young girl, with her dad and even younger brother watching from the sidelines.  She seemed to have a particular antipathy to my cavalry and shot at the horses on all possible occasions.  I thought that little girls were supposed to like ponies?

A. and I quickly found out that it was very difficult to advance with units that had PIN markers on them.  This led to our attacks going in piecemeal as each unpinned unit would charge forwards on its own, only to be gunned down by the defenders.  My glorious, flanking cavalry charge that was supposed to take us over the walls on the left was met by some particularly stubborn resistance; even though I inflicted 6 hits on the defending unit of 7 men, they all hit in return and routed my force.

At the end of the 6th turn, when the gold train departed, we hadn't managed to get even one figure over the sandbag wall...

Lunch

I'd taken a packed lunch with us, since I've been dismayed at the quality (and price!) of the food offered at this and some other shows before.  The sun was shining and we were able to sit outside in the courtyard; it was good.

Game 3: Operation Retribution

Blue dice for low-medium altitude, white dice for medium-high.

The Blue Bears put on a massed WWII aircraft battle, based on Operation Retribution (the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941) and using their own rules.  Each of the 6 players took a flight of 3 Yugoslav fighters, which were a mixture of Bf-109s, Hurricanes and their own, homebuilt IK-Z.  The goal was to shoot down as many Luftwaffe bombers as possible.

A rather cluttered table near the end of the game, with altitude and damage dice all over the place.

This we proceeded to do in style; it was something of a "turkey shoot".  The game was enlivened by small amounts of karaoke and the occasional group chant ("On, no!  Not the purple dice of doom!").  Luftwaffe fighters flew overhead, but too high to see what was happening, so we rampaged through the bomber formations and devastated them.

I have to admit that I felt somewhat uncomfortable with the resulting massacre; it was very one-sided and quite a long way from what really happened in 1941.

Game 4: Kings of War

One set of rules which has been on my radar for a while is Kings of War.  This seems to be gaining a great deal of popularity, indeed it is perhaps the "go to" set for large, fantasy battles these days.  We had the opportunity to learn some of the mechanics in a little demonstration game, umpired by a very helpful and friendly representative (thanks!).

So, A. took a small force of dwarves, whilst I attacked him with an undead warband.

The Necromancer steps in to prevent the large unit of Dwarves from attacking the zombies in the flank.  Amazingly, he survives, at least for now!

The dwarves' cannon proved to be spectacularly useless and I don't think it hit anything in the entire game.  However, the stunty warriors proved to be very effective; they carved their way through my ghouls and skeletons in short order (groan!).

My leader, the necromancer, was forced to get involved personally in a messy melee to try to prevent the Dwarven rampage.  Although he eventually succumbed, he did allow the zombies time to fight back.

One after another, the Dwarven units fell to the all-conquering, but heavily beaten-up, zombies.  This was a complete surprise to all of us; when we called time on the game they were facing just the Dwarven warsmith and their cannon.  I'd say that it could have gone either way after that...

Game 5: Custer's Last Stand

In the dying 30 minutes of the show, just as we were tiring and wondering whether to depart, we came across the Leuchars Veterans' game: Custer's Last Stand.  I've taken part in some of their games before and they are always great fun: short, simple, effective and usually with excellent props as well.

I took chief Gall of the HunkPapa Sioux.  My son A. had Hollow Horn Bear of the Brule Sioux.

Each of the 5 (or was it 6?) players took a band of Indians - and yes, we did all wear headdresses with feathers in them.  The measuring sticks were modelled as arrows and our goal was to be the one to scalp Custer.  Note that there wasn't a whole lot of doubt that this would happen as the Indian forces were considerably larger than the remnants of the cavalry!

Between us, A. and I were first up onto the hill.  I may just have positioned my warriors to block some of the other players ("Oh, sorry, Crazy Horse!  Am I in your way - I hadn't realised?"), but all's fair in love and war...

Despite being the first to attack Custer, Hollow Horn Bear (A.'s chieftain) just couldn't kill the general.  Indeed, Custer managed to kill A's horse and thus dismount him!  My leader (chief Gall) was also in early, but failed to make any impression.

At the end, Custer was surrounded by no less than 5 chieftains.  It became a lottery as to who would strike the killing blow; many dice were rolled only for the owner to sigh in disgust at the lack of any of the requisite 6s.  Eventually, the flag-bearer was slain by someone and the very next Sioux chieftain killed Custer.  Suffice it to say that it wasn't either A. or myself who took the honour!

Return Journey

Another tedious trip in the car, this time with the driver (me) somewhat fatigued.  I really wish that public transport was a plausible alternative, but the Granton venue is just not suitable for this if you're coming from outside of Edinburgh!

Loot

Between games, we did a fair amount of shopping.  I say "we", but in reality it was just I that bought things.  We did have a few casual looks at the bring-and-buy, but it seemed especially crowded this year.  The bring-and-buy tables also looked to be stacked high with items, thus making it hard to see what was on offer.

So, just traders, then.  Here's what we came home with:

• The newly-published (and much anticipated, at least by me) Congo rules.
• Several packets of Darkest Africa figures: Ascaris and Tribal warriors.
• Into the Breeding Pits (the latest expansion for Frostgrave)
• Matt varnish.  Always useful, especially as some mail services either won't accept aerosols any more or charge an arm and a leg.
• 2 x MDF Land Rovers.  28mm-compatible Land Rovers have been something of a Holy Grail for me, so I was delighted to see that Warbases are now producing some kits.  I'll report on these more another time.
• Operation Retribution rules, handed out to participants in the game.  Whilst of casual interest, I don't think I'll be investing anything into WW2 air combat games.
• US Rangers and Australian Light Horse officer; winnings from the SSFSA tombola.  I still don't know what to do with these, as they don't fit into any period or genre that I play.