I hate to say it but the annual greatest weekend in the Welsh wargaming calendar left me wiped out! I actually played in the L’art de la Guerre doubles with Mark Fry, and we didn’t came last! The old stalwarts of DBM had a great turn out, as did the Field of Glory competitions. Mortem et Gloriam was hit by illness and scheduling but this was the biggest Godendag for quite some years. We even included To the Strongest ( Brucey’s Play your Cards right by any other name) and they may even be invited back. My thanks to all those systems organisers who worked so hard to make the weekend so successful. The venue accommodated over a hundred players with ease and hopefully we can all meet again in Late August. Mark is even now writing up our experiences of the competition for your delight.

Getting everyone together does take some considerable amount of time and even then there is always one team who didn’t know the start time ( yet again!). This week has been my efforts to follow the in-crowd and dispense with surplus 15mm miniatures. Finding L’art de la Guere meant a diminishion of figures needed and who am I to stand against the tide. Mr. Porter , Steve Charlton and our own big name Don McHugh have all been selling their collections. I prefer to call my efforts rationalisation……

From before Godendag, I have gone back to De Bellis Antiquitatis. Tiny, compact armies that allow you collect all your favourite armies. While trying to develop our own beginners set of rules, I had forgotten just how good these rules are. Now, being a wargamer we all know it doesn’t stop there! Buying twelve units and playing the standard rules is far too simple. Impetvs or Big Base DBA with amendments to take the armies through to 1700AD, welcome to our 2019 club project…

I really like the bigger bases and I enjoy the scope for creating those Impetvs style bases. My new basing technique involves using Woodlands Scenic Ballast, rather than the old Pollyfiller. It is a lot quicker and all I need to do now is rebase several hundred miniatures. Thankfully I can just put four DBX bases together where the basing is suitable.

One amendment is to keep generals on separate 40mm bases. We are toying with dispensing with pip dice and allowing all elements to move. Dispensing with pips would be a major departure but allows for the play to still ebb and flow but determined by the general’s and not the dice. More info on this project to follow soon but I hope to have the Ottomans completely reorganised by the end of the month. Simon Hall has just reopened his store to supply me with some extra Huns for my next reorganisation. I’ll leave you with a few snatched shots from Godendag and the hope that the year continues in this exciting manner!