The Woods in Wargames Illustrated (featuring my goats)

Very excited to see this summer's The Woods in the Woods get two pages of coverage in Wargames Illustrated 443 - Geoff Solomon-Sims has created a beautiful game and the annual Oakbound Games Day is surely one of the most unique and special events in the gaming calendar. So I was very pleased to see it showcased in Wargames Illustrated - I hope it attracts more players to the game!

And I have to say that I was especially proud to see my White Phooka warband featured - the very first time that anything I've slapped paint on has been in print. Mike Peters took some excellent photos capturing the magic of the day, and although I'm sure my warband featured more for its novelty value than anything else, it's still an exciting moment to see something I've painted in Wargames Illustrated. (Also a bit weird to see me in there rocking the tweed jacket and drinking a cup of tea...)

Here's Mike's photo of the warband - the Phooka themselves are Goat-Kin from Crooked Dice, the goats are sculpts from Duncan Shadow on etsy.

Night of the Living Lead 2024: an Oldhammer horror story

How's everyone been? I've been a long time silent on this blog, still getting some hobby stuff done but until recently mostly been drowning in work. Anyway, a bit of an Oldhammer horror story for you...

Couple of weeks ago, I head down to the Foundry for the annual "Night of the Living Lead" Little Albion game. The scenario is based on the theme of Gathering Winter Fuel... or rather stopping peasants from gathering it for free. I've taken a High Elf warband along - Kieran the Prudent and his Forestry Commission - to support Lord Watalouse in his objective of bringing fiscal responsibility in the realm. (Many thanks to Tom Reynolds for the photos of my warband in action!)

Fun times with great people, as always.

A few days later, I'm heading back to Orkney. It's been a long train ride up from England to Scotland, and then the Scotrail to Aberdeen. But finally I'm on the ferry home.

I reach into my backpack... and realise I've left my minis on the train.

I'd had to lay the backback down, so I took the box of minis out to keep it from being tipped on its side, and just sat it down on the luggage rack next to my backpack. I'd grabbed the backpack in Aberdeen, but forgot the minis. Shit shit shit shit.

My mind's whirring, and I ring Aberdeen lost property. I try and give the dimensions of the box. They rush out to check the luggage rack as the train's about to head back to Edinburgh. Nope, they couldn't see it, but they didn't have long to look. Try again when it gets to Edinburgh. Edinburgh's system is much more beauraucratic, I have to fill in a form. That just generates an email saying that nothing of that description has been handed in. My heart is sinking at this stage.

But still, I don't want to give up hope. So the next day I phone Aberdeen again. I describe my box (small, cardboard). The lady on the other end says, could you say something more to identify it... well, I explain, there's a bag of dice sitting on a layer of tissue, and beneath that that layer of tissue there are 15 painted toy soldiers. There's a pause and I realise she's actually got the box there and is opening it up. I hear a bit of a chuckle on the other end. "Yes, we have your lost property here." Apparently they'd gone up and down between Edinburgh and Aberdeen about four times, just sitting on the luggage rack until the end of the day when the cleaners found the box up there and handed it in.

And so this Tuesday I was finally passing through Aberdeen station again and go go to lost property and reclaim the box.

14 High Elves and a temple dog, back home again. A happy ending!