Back Again

Tuesday and the club has got back together after the Christmas recess. Not too many turned up and only a few games in play.

Martin was once again trialling a battle for his scenario book for Cheer Boys, Cheer! and, like last time, was short of terrain as the club owns no wide hills, barring a couple of foam ones, for making valleys.

The Battle of Morton's Ford, 6th Feb, 1864

The Rebels were starting to get a bit worried as the Blues crossed the river unopposed except for the cannons which themselves were coming under counter-battery fire from the Union positions on the far side of the river. This was pretty ineffectual due to the fortifications.

From Furness Wargamers

Ancient Antics

Finally got roped into doing DBA for the first time in a mini tournament with six players. A round-robin with each game was nominally twenty minutes each. Armies were randomly allocated from Paul's central collection of plastics and I ended up with the Sea People, who were apparently half Viking - half Village People.

From Furness Wargamers

Recon in force

Had nothing better to do on Saturday so went on a trip to the land of Tykes and journeyed to Recon, one of the smaller conventions, and organised by the Wakefield and Ossett Wargamers, being held in (or rather outside) Pudsey. Went the scenic route via Settle before hitting the nightmare that is Bradford traffic system.

From Conventions

Magic Formula

At a loss for games on Tuesday, didn't fancy a small DBA tournament, set in what looked like Egypt judging by the pyramids and sphinxes, and the Uncharted Seas game was already full.

Didn't bring my usual selection of games and unfortunately everybody thought likewise so we were sort of stuck at what to do. Craig normally brings something along but as he hadn't currently arrived, it was decided to do the 'summon Craig ritual' and send me out to get my games. True to form the ritual worked and by the time I got back Craig was there setting up a game of Formula D (De as was).

Use to play this game enough in the past (with Jon, Ray and Ian) to actually have full World Champions and running two cars each, but this is the first time playing the new version.

The new version has flashier components than the old, with peg based dashboard rather than the paper and pencil pads formally used. The cars look smaller than previous and are one piece but coloured rather than the old with their clip on wings which you could mix and match.

The race was a two lapper on a proper racing circuit (Hockenheim) rather than one of the gimmicky street racing ones included in the new version. Six players racing one car each.

Didn't get off to a good start, taking two collision damages in the first third of the track and leaving most of my tires on the tarmac.

Everybody bar Craig headed into the pits at the end of lap one, and being within a turn of each other a large tailback ensured. Not sure that the pit rules were done properly as I didn't think you could stall in the pits; either fast or slow stop and out in Fourth gear (or lower) regardless of the pit roll. Another new thing in this version is the limited ability to fix two damage to other areas of the car as well as renewing the tyres.

More carnage going around the second lap but not from my car. Jim's Tractor ended up falling apart half way round the second lap with Keir's soon to follow. Did manage to use up all my tires and brakes to just survive the last corner, and putting myself one step ahead of my rival for third\fourth place. Thought I had blown it at the end as I rolled one short of the finishing line, but thankfully the guy behind was just as bad at rolling the die as I was and came up two short of the line. So staggered across the finish line in third.
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