Auckland Wargaming Club

AWC Member Ben Hill reports in from Oxford, UK, on the local wargaming scene there:

Herro AWC,

In March this year, my wife and I moved to Oxford in the UK. We will be here for a several years while my wife does genius things that I do not understand, similar situation to my wargaming.

I miss the AWC and its excellent members not to mention my Romans and newly painted ACW army. However, with England being the home of toy soldiers I have an excellent opportunity to buy buy buy. With that in mind, I visited the Foundry in Nottingham on July 23 for their open day with Sean (who was visiting the UK). Firstly, Nottingham has very few trees, no men in tights, no sheriff, and maid Marion had no teeth but she knew where St Mark’s road was luckily.

At the latest AWC Club Meeting a new period made an appearance, 28mm World War 1, specifically one of the “Side Shows”. Somewhere near Chunuk Bair the ANZACs and their British compatriots came face to face with Johnny Turk. The game was played using a variation of The Sword And The Flame (TSATF) Colonial Rules, and featured rules modifications and ideas from the Side Shows of the Great War Yahoo!Group. For more detail’s of the game and a gallery of photos see the article at John Moher’s Wargaming.info site.

Mid-1884, The Mahdist Rebeliion is reaching it's peak - Gordon is isolated in Khartoum, and the rebellion steadily spreads north towards the Egyptian frontier. As the main relief expedition to go to Gordon's aid is finally being formed, news comes that a large number of European, Greek, and Egyptian Civilians, along with a small British Hospital Corps detachment, have been cut off in the town of Dongola; and the local Egyptian Commander has only a small number of Bashi-Bazouk Irregulars and whatever Civilians that can fight to try and defend the town (who's defences are in a poor state)...

Saints & Soldiers - Ardennes/Battle of the Bulge – Based on Historical Events – Story of 4 U.S. GI’s whose unit surrenders when cut off on the very first day or two of the German Offensive, but who then escape – in their efforts to elude the Germans and get back to friendly lines they encounter a shot down British reconnaissance pilot, who got a glimpse of the size of the German forces that were advancing before the weather closed in – he is desperate to get back to an HQ somewhere to report as no one may realise how large this attack is, etc… The G.I.’s agree to help him and with just 1 German 98K Rifle with a few bullets and the RAF Pilot’s Revolver (and little food) they strike out for the closest U.S. unit.