novembr 2012 raffle Prizes

Hi last novembers RBL raffle drawn at the Wargames Emporium ,contained free tickets for the 2013 Sheffield Triples ,which I now have recieved ,but the contact details for 2 of the winners seem to be wrong/out of date ?. To organise the collection of your tickets could the 2 gents from the Sheffield and Rotherham wargames club that meets on thursdays please contact myself through this blog or john Grayson at the club on the 16th meeting , or through the wargames emporium ,John the owner will be able to get amessage to me.Please note the winning slip given on the day will NOT get you entry to triples .I will need proof you are the winners ,I have your original contact details so should work it out from those.

The Walking Dead

During a recent visit to the Wargames Emporium ,I noticed a Card Game being sold like hot cakes , on further investigation saw it was based on the Walking Dead TV show ,so as all my family are big fans ,I bought it as a family game.

The game itself contains 104 walker cards ,but most are repeat pictures ,there are 4 or 5 different pics thats all, 6 Hero cards Rick , Glenn,T-Dog,Andrea,Maggieand Daryl and the rulebook.

Game Play : Nothing dramatic here ,although there are variations on the game in the rule book they seem to be samey ,although we have only played the first variant. Each player gets a hand of 15 walkers and 1 hero ,then 5 walker cards are laid down and taking turns in order of lowest value cards each player puts down 2 cards ,end of turn. When the walker rows have 5 cards the next player with the corrrect card can steal the row ,the winner being the player with the most "Bullit" markers at the end.The heroes act like a free move card and are then discarded.

Overall : The pics are ok but not enough different zombies or heroes really for the collectors , games plays probably ok for a club on the nights no one brings a game ,definatley more fun with more players ,had a game with 2 and was ok but played with 5 players  it was much more fun.  6/10

A selection of cards and Rule book

forceon force at shows and tournament and Raffle and more...

Hi as some of you know ,Ive been a bit ill this last few months and its brought my Pointman activities for AAG to a bit of a stop ,well after months of scans and tests and treatments its got down to last option operation ,so waiting for date for this so once its down and I'm able to get out and about a bit more I will be at shows and start the tournament so will miss Triples this year which is a shame as its our biggest fund raiser  .The raffle will definatley be taking place a lot bigger this year with some non wargaming stuff up for grabs as well .Will keep people posted .

Fort Paull Museum

Underground tunnel

 Spent a very pleasant day at Fort Paull near hull ,there as been a fort on the sight since Henry V111 ordered the first one built ,the museum is in the one built during the Napoleonic wars . Some of the exhibits have seen better days especially some of the wax works but when you consider the vast number of exhibits, add the size of the fort (10 acres ) and that it is cared for by 2 volunteers a lot can be forgiven . The exhibits and displays are wierd and varied including the last Blackburn Beverly , a AML 90 destroyed by a land mine in the Yom Kippur war ,the Hawker Hunter that was retired to be  the gate guardian at the Humbrol/Airfix factory in hull ,then abandoned and badly vandalised before finding its way into the fort. One of King Charles 1 vertebrae which was turned in to a salt server is on show as are demonstrations of wicth burning and victorian medical procedures, lots of different weapons are spread around and then of course there is the fort itself ,in various state of repair with its gun emplacements overlooking  the Humber and its underground tunnels and magazines most of them contian exhibits. An incredibly low entrance fee which stays the same even when they have re enactment days ,overall a great day out at a interesting venue that needs regular visitors.

The sad end to a scared soldier sent into the cells

Cold war Shutzenpanzer

Victim of a land mine in 1973

Blackburn anti zeppelin triplane

Inside the Beverly lower deck

The last Blackburn Beverly

white devil

Just finished reading White Devil by Stephen Brumwell , The true story of  Major Robert rogers raid on the Abenaki vilage of St Francis .I first heard of this raid in the classic film Northwest passage with Spencer Tracy playing Rogers , White Devil shows a very different version of events not for the faint hearted the book is a real adventure story very gripping and hard to put down ,a really enjoyable read that covers the FIW background as well .I was interested to find Rogers died in London so I  looked up his grave site with a future visit in mind ,only  to find that if Rogers ever had a grave marker it vanished a long time ago ,the grave yard is now concreted over and amongst the bodies removed to "other burial sites" Rogers is not listed at all ,a sad end to a real action hero .

Galava Roman Fort

 On the Noerth shore of Lake  windermere at Ambleside are the remains of a Roman fort and settlement called Galava .
The ruins are well described on information panels at each part of the building ,well worth a visit if in the area

Pulp Fiction

A selection of Pulp Fiction books have been reprinted by Wordsworth Editions under the "Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural "series .They appear to be widely available from bookstores although I got mine through amazon ,they all have the cover price of £2.99 .They have very basic printing on pulp style paper which adds to the whole thing I think.I purchased four titles which are:

The case book of Carnacki The Ghost Finder .
The tales of a Edwardian ghost finder a 191 pages containing an introduction by D.S.Davies  and 9 stories first published in Pearson's magazine  in 1898-89.

The Right Hand of Doom & other tales of Solomon Kane.
203 pages consisting of an introduction by M.J Elliot,10 stories ,an appendix and 2 poems by R.E.Howard

The casebook of Sexton Blake .
The second  thickest one in my first order of these books at 545 pages which includes a introduction by D.S.Davies ,7 stories first printed between 1908 and 1923 and a warning that some of the views described in the book are unacceptable today ? . Looking forward to reading this as i remember reading some of the stories after getting hooked on the 70,s TV show .

A Charlie Chan Omnibus.
The heaviest book weighing in at 641 pages ,Again an introduction by m.J.Elliot and 3 of the earliest Chan novels by Earl Derr Biggers ,The House Without a Key , The Chinese Parrot and Behindd that curtain .

Full details of the range can be found at  www.wordsworth-editions.com