The Black Effect by Harvey Black

Just finished the second part of the trilogy and its just as gripping as the first part,each chapter dealing with the soviet invasion through the characters we met in Red Effect plus lots of new ones .The battles ,skirmishes and secret missions are all full of action and excitement and are so realistically described again I could not put it down ,lucky for me I was on 12 hour night duty and it was quiet .As I have already said this book brings in new characters and we begin to see how the other NATO and warpact allies might have reacted to a conflict in Europe .Very realistic combat ,briefing and political sections to this fantastic novel leaves you rooting for or hating the people that briefly effect the novel and the wars progress ,I would love to go into more detail but do not want to spoil these brilliant books ,from a war gamers point of view both these books give loads of ideas for one off and campaign games ,now I am sat very impatiently  for Mr Black to finish part  3 then I will move onto his WW2 trilogy . 10/10

The Red Effect by Harvey Black

One of the many books that santa stored on my Kindle was ,The Red Effect by Harvey Black. This is a must read for anyone even slightly interested in the cold war ,and the what if it had gone hot possibilities .The Author served in military intelligence during this period and has his own blog showing many pictures taken during his time in Berlin ,the Red Effect is the first of a trilogy and deals with the intelligence build up just prior to this fictional conflict . The book is well written and i found it almost impossible to put down ,it builds up at a very fast pace and ends with the first very bloody moments of world war 3 in Europe . The book uses many various characters .soviet and British mainly but also German and American and uses "fictional "politicians such as the female UK Prime Minister and her support of the ex actor who is now the U.S. President to show how Europe very easily the world slides into war . This is a very gripping read and will give war gamers lots of inspiration I have just started reading the second partThe Black Effect. 10/10

Free E-Books

Just a quick post to say that there are free military books to down load for the next few days at
http://shilka.co.uk/christmas-giveaway/

Available in E-Book .PDF and Mobile app from the 26th to end of the year .

Merry Xmas

Just wishing every one a Merry Xmas and hope you had as good a day as I have had . Some new PSC stugs from my youngest son and a kindle with loads of e-books hobby and history related ,including Harvey Blacks Red effect  and Black effect along with his Devils with wings ,just started the Red effect and its a great read . Also on there from my eldest daughter are Chieftains the classic cold war novel ,V Bombers ,The Lightning Boys ,Casino Royal The Complete Tarzan stories and 12 assorted R.L.Stevenson including my all time favourite Treasure Island .Best of All this is my first Christmas Ive not been on duty and had my 3 youngest with me and managed to speak to my 2 eldest and get videos and pics  of my 2 Grandsons now to settle down with a Jack Daniels and watch the Dr Who special with my lovely lady .

Rules which ones Rule

I am one of those strange war gamers that buy almost every set of rules that are published covering the periods I am interested in ,but now due to lack of space I am cutting back and will keep the ones I personally think are the best and will sell my overstock in the new year .So what am I keeping and why….


Post ww2 , thats cold war ,Vietnam ,Afghanistan etc .only one contender here and that's Force on Force from Ambush Alley Games , I have played this since the original Ambush Alley pdf and cannot fault it , I own all the supplements even the ones I will never game i just find them all great reads and useful resources . I love these rules ,lots of rule sets have copied the system but have never come close to beating it in my eyes . I have used these on participation games with members of our armed forces who have commented on its realism but how easy it is to learn . Great support as well on the AAG shop and Forum .

10 /10

Great War I never found a playable set of WW1 rules the ones I tried were either so complicated and dull or you could have been running a game set in any period .Then even though I did not like the look of the rules I tried Through the Mud and the Blood by the too Fat Lardies and now I am a true believer ,I know a lot of people do not like the Blind system of movement and the tongue in cheek way its scenarios are written but I love them . lots of fantastic fan sites out there as well .

9/10

Zulu War ,again tried loads with out success until I bought the Triumph and Tragedy colonial wars supplement ,hunt over .These great rules can be played as small skirmish or mass battle ,good support from the authors who have a section on the lead adventure forum .9/10

French Indian War .Always loved this period but never gamed it as I never found the right rules but Muskets and Tomahawks solved this , a brilliant set of rules from the people who did the Saga set again a nice forum for support and can be played solo , I would say only suitable up to large skirmish 50-60 figures per side but thats because of the time involved in moving figures may try a larger full weekend game one day .

  10/10

Vikings ,Saga are the rules of choice for skirmishes but still not found a large scale game set that i like , forum shared with Muskets and Tomahawks .

9/10

Samurai again own loads and never happy ,just bought Ronin by Northstar /osprey and reading through they look good but not played yet .

 7/10 (until I play them )

WW2 …..used to love playing 15mm with the now out of print Overlord ,I think by Barry Lovell .Lost my copy along time ago and played loads of rules since ,Flames of war are awful in my opinion ,didn't like Bolt Action have bought played and liked BattleGroup Overlord but have just bought and played Chain of Command and these are the ones for platoon level actions ,again by the too fat Lardies .

Battlegroup OverLord 8/10
Chain of Command 9/10

Pulp ,now this ones an issue I have 2 sets that I love Pulp Alley and 7TV one day I will say ones the better set the next day it will be the other . I think 7tv wins out just slightly as its more tongue in cheek and fits in with the 60's and 70's spy films and tv serials ,plus crooked dice the publishers also print a set based on the Harryhausen type epic's such as Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts and a  set of zombie rules and a set for Dr Who which we play as a family

Pulp Alley 8/10
7TV                9/10
7ombie TV     9/10
7th Voyage     9/10
Dr Who          9/10

Sci Fi another hard one and the period I play the least a tie between Tomorrows war by AAG for larger scale battles and PMC2640 by Assault Publishing for smaller / medium games  both well written and again hats of to Shaun and Peggy & co at AAG and Marcin at Assault Publishing ,both excellent sets that make my gaming life harder .

Tomorrows war 10/10
PMC2640           10/10

And now a strange one I was fascinated by what I read about Witch Finder General ,a set of supernatural /fantasy rules by Dashing Dice games which are superb at what they were written for , battles with witches ,vampires and other beasties in the ECW period of England's history but they have now got me skirmishing the English Civil War historically , they are the best ,I am looking forward to a promised supplement and as a add on Dashing Dice have just released some figures which are again superb .
10/10 you must try these.

ww1 Air Combat .wings of Glory byAres
9/10

ww2 Air War with out doubt Stormovik Commander from Marcin at Assault Publishing.
10/10

I now have to get together the many rule sets I will be selling off , I will post a list here in case any one is interested .

Dr Who and the 7 Samurai (well 2 of them )

Some of the Doctors

 My challenge to myself to clear my work bench in November was not a massive success I still have loads half painted but these few are almost there just varnish ,matt coat and basing to go .

4th

9th 

10th 

11th

War Doctor

companions Amy ,Harry & K9

The Master

Front and back shots of my 1st Ronin figure

My 2nd Ronin figure

Ronin figures from Northstar Dr who from Heresey and Black Tree Design .

Royal Mail is stopping me painting…...

well not really ,but they are making it a lot harder to buy small pots of paint through the post ,it is really stupid so I am not going to try and explain just have a look at the link below . Please sign the petition even if you don't order paint through the post ,I don't but I know my local store sell it this way and if they lose sales and close it effects me any way ,plus its more stupid red tape stopping people doing what they have done for years  this is a copy of the email sent to me with the link .

Dear Richard, 

Thanks for signing my petition, "Royal Mail: Lift the restrictions on shipping water-based paints.." 

Can you help this petition win by asking your friends to sign too? It's easy to share with your friends on Facebook - just click here to share the petition on Facebook. 

There's also a sample email below that you can forward to your friends. 

Thanks again -- together we're making change happen, 

Leon Pengilley 

---------

Note to forward to your friends:

Hi!

I just signed the petition "Royal Mail: Lift the restrictions on shipping water-based paints." on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/royal-mail-lift-the-restrictions-on-shipping-water-based-paints?share_id=VLMWuWNFmU&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Thanks!

Richard

Stonefall

Stonefall cemetery near Harrogate is a dedicated Commonwealth war graves cemetery . Most of the burials are RAF  ,and almost two thirds of those are Canadian . The graves are as always beautifully maintained by war graves staff and this cemetery contains the grave of one of the local war graves commissions staff ,also buried within the cemetery are other commonwealth service men and 1 german and four Russians ,most of the buried passed away in the now demolished  local hospital after suffering combat wounds although there are at least 2 RAF crews that died in wartime crashes in the local hill sides .There are also a small number of ww1 graves and plaques and memorials to a number of war dead whose graves are in local grave yards that the war graves commission cannot attend and to service men who were cremated rather than buried.

This grave stone is a marker for E.Audsley who was buried in a local church yard  out of care of the Commonwealth War Graves commission , unfortunately his original marker ,grave and body were all destroyed during "improvements" to the church recently .

whilst there we had almost constant fly pasts by the RAF 

I am always amazed by the number of graves maintained for foreign troops 

Also some make me wonder how the particular person ended up buried in England 

These three Russian soldiers are resting together.

Dave Parsons Painting Service

A local sponsor of our British Legion raffles is Dave Parsons ,a really nice guy I first met at Triples about 3 or 4 years ago when Dave and his son joined in one of my Force on Force games ,he now runs a painting service and always puts up a voucher as a prize ,I am packing a few figures up now for Dave to paint for me in my on going attempts to make my lead pile smaller , there many examples of Daves painting in the war games emporium I think most of the stores armies are his work .

Dave Parsons Painting and Modeling  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figures and models to a tabletop standard for wargamers Any rule system, period, genre or scale Quick and Reliable Service

Guide Prices 15mm / 18mm Foot : £1.10 Cavalry : £1.65 28mm Foot : £1.65 Cavalry : £2.20 Other scales, types etc by arrangement

Contact Dave Mobile : 07881920311 E Mail  : davpar@blueyonder.co.uk

ww2 German Equipment

Brigade Models

Brigade Models another of our sponsors for the Royal British Legion fund raising ,is a UK company that as a diverse range of products that ranges from 6mm sci fi to 28mm Great war .The Great war range is what first brought them to my attention at that time they were the only people making early war Belgians ,these lovely 28mm figures are the bees knees for any one interested  in this brave little army that put up such a valiant struggle in the early days of WW1 .Brigade Models Belgians are shown in the distinctive Napoleonic style uniforms and I believe is still the most complete range of figures on this subject . Looking at the site though I found some very tempting ranges that I have missed before ,a lovely little range of 15mm sic-fi which is the only thing I actually game in 15mm now ,some nice 28mm Belgian civilians which I will order not only for my great war games but also for use in my Dr Who and Cthulu games . Star ships and victorian flying machines also populate the web store and when you search the site you find some great links and even a page on which cakes are the best , a must for war gamers! .
Take a look and see what you've been missing    http://www.brigademodels.co.uk .

RH Models

Just as a thank you and as I have already had one of the winners of a prize ask me about where some of the prizes came from ,I have decided to do a small write up on each of the sponsors who provided prizes and support this year , in an irregular set of posts that will take awhile between work and family and painting . Hopefully this will benefit these generous people and you will support them by dealing with them as they supported our armed forces by helping our fund raising.

So in no order at all I will start with Rolf at RH models known to many as Liberation Figures , Rolf is a really nice chap which shows up in the fact he contacted me wishing to donate some of his wonderful figures as prizes , and contacted me on the day of the raffle wishing me luck .

Its hard to describe RH Models range as it covers almost all (if not all ) 20th & 21st century conflicts , a quick look at his web pages will amaze you if you are not already familiar with Rolf's figures. I personally bought some of his 80's British army and SAS , plus one of his vehicles and must admit I loved the figures especially the SAS a quick hunt back through this blog under cold war headings will show some of them . His ranges can are listed here  www.rhmodels.com  and here  http://rhmodels.yolasite.com/   please visit both sites  . Can I just say as well ,that both sets of figures he donated as prizes were stunning but the modern Russians were amazing and caused a bit of a stir on raffle day .

some of Rolf's SAS in my collection 

A big thank you

I would just like to thank the people and groups listed below who donated prizes to our fund raising efforts for the British Legion .I am trying to thank them all personally as time permits .I would also like to thank every one who bought tickets and if you didn't win this year try again next year please ,also a big thanks to John Grayson ,all the staff at the Wargames Emporium especially John  and Eric for putting time and effort into this as always and of course Elaine who did most of the paper work and took over a couple of times during the build up when I was ill. Finally a word of thanks to all members of our wonderful armed forces who face danger in some form every day and to their families who are just as brave and need just as much of our support .

1st Corps
Ambush Alley Games

Assault Publishing

Brigade Models

Dashing Dice games

Dave Parsons Figure Painting Service

Elhiem Figures

Galloping Major

Gripping Beast

Paella World

Plastic soldier Company

Piers Brand
 RH Models

Rogue Miniatures

Sally 4th

Sheffield Wargames Society

S&S models

Studio Miniatures

The Old Book Shelf  of Scotland

Tim Gow of the St James Place Partnership

Underfire miniatures

War Games Emporium

Warlord Games

The cross of sacrifice seen at commonwealth war graves around the world 

Film Stars

some unsung stars of the big screen Top a Hispano Buchon , in make up as aBF 109 for the Battle of Britain , the Buchon was a license built copy of the bf 109 this one was built in 1959 for the Spanish Airforce and was sold to Spitfire Productions for the  film in 1968 . Below it,is a  Nord Pingouin 11 again this type of aircraft starred as 109's in many war films . 

IWM Duxford is home to many aircraft made famous in many war films ,the Air Field its self also had a major explosive role  in the Battle of Britain movie.

Today

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam

over for another year ...

Well thats it another year of collecting over and already planning next years . I would personally like to thank everyone who contributed prizes and very one who bought tickets I have yet to do a final count on the amount raised but I do know it is down on last year ,but over all it still looks an  healthy amount and as I always say every penny counts. I have to tie in all the vouchers and gift tokens etc and inform those that contributed in that way who will be claiming their prizes .A few prizes remain unclaimed these will be stored in the war-games emporium sheffield until they are claimed if prizes are not claimed before the end of this month then they will be auctioned and the money sent to the British Legion .
The unclaimed tickets are :

White 196
white 195
white 228
white 198
white 143
white 222
green 229
white 287
pink 270
white 277

Just pop in with your winning ticket to the Emporium before the end of November to claim your prize

some of the prizes on offer today 

Todays the Day

Well todays the big day ,the prize draw for the war gamers raffle 2013 ,with all proceeds going to the Royal British Legion .Ticket sales have been good but a bit down on previous years ,so if your in the Sheffield area today call in to the Wargames Emporium Orchard Sq and get those last minute tickets and wait to see if you have been lucky . Even though a couple of our regular sponsors have been unable to help out this year ,we have had massive support from the others and even picked up a few new sponsors and for the first time we have non wargaming prizes from Paella world .

Prizes Donated by:

1st Corps

Assault Publishing

BrigadeModels 

Dashing Dice games

Dave Parsons Figure Painting Service

Elhiem Figures

Galloping Major

Gripping Beast

Northstar Miniatures

Paella World

Plastic soldier Company

Piers Brand

 RH Models

Rogue Miniatures

Sally 4th

Sheffield Wargames Society

S&S models

Studio Miniatures

The Old Book Shelf  of Scotland

Tim Gow of the St James Place Partnership

Underfire miniatures

War Games Emporium

Warlord Games

Tickets on Sale at the Wargames Emporium Orchard Square Sheffield

so pop down today and put a few pennies in our collection bucket or buy a few tickets at £1.00 for 5 its a bargain and a fun way to help our amazing service people .