Friday, September 27, 2019

Arnhem Day 

It being the 75th Anniversary of the battle, and not being able to head up the road from Leopoldsburg this year I> did the next best thing and attended an event at the local games store/hub/thingy, Entoyment in Poole.

It took some finding as the Post Code given in the site is not that of the Business Park on which it is established.  When I got there several games were in full swing and there was no doubting the general enthusiasm of the attendees.

The shop itself carries a good range of paints and brushes plus a lot of board games. The current trend in boxed wargames is well represented and so are the usual suspects from the manufacturers.  Warlord, Perry, PSC, as well as Fireforge and a good few others including Battlefront.  Overall I am quite heartened by the fact that a short drive will get me a table and a top up on any necessary items.

So to the games and there were a goodly selection.





These were from a group called Pikeys Wargames who put on the Osterbeek map using the Rapid Fire rules . I was most impressed with the terrain but did feel that the forces were a little lost in it. But it was being played for the whole day and got much attention.




There was another game set near the Son Bridge put on by the local guys. Again it looked very spectacular and was being played using the Battlegroup rules. It was very intense and all were getting stuck in. The only complaint I overheard was when someone's Panther Zug was shot up whilst they were away getting a coffee.



I took part in a game using the RF rules with one or two tweaks that may or may not be coming in the forecast revised set. Not sure about the rules for multi basing with regards to casualties.  i.e. only full bases can be removed from a unit. Since command bases tend to have three figures ... 

Any way it was an enjoyable experience and I got to know a couple more of the local gamers.  The game was based upon the actions of the Poles at Driel.  It was very bloody and effectively ended in a draw - although I doubt if the poles couple have fought on much more. It had that feeling of last man standing.  Bullying the German armour for once was fun. They only had a half track and a Panzer II. Our troop of Shermans therefore got to do a lot of HE work in support of the infantry.







There were acouple of PBI games. For some reason I rather took to this tank in a game run I think by the Levellers

And Peter Pig reprised their Arnhem Bridge game.



IA view of the whole table; it all works on 6 inch squares

I thought the sunken barge particularly effectve



All in all a most enjoyable day!




1 comment:

  1. Glad that you are finding wargaming interest near where you now live.

    ReplyDelete