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Friday, 8 December 2017

Recon 2017

Last Saturday saw me travelling to Pudsey near Leeds for the Recon show.  Will very kindly offered me a lift and I spent quite a bit of the day mooching around the Lance and Longbow stand, being made to feel very welcome by Will, Steve and David and even throwing some dice and moving troops in their participation game, a hypothetical Battle of Chester 1318, using modified Pikemans Lament rules.




Both times I found myself as overall commander of the Kings forces attempting to breakthrough to Chester, beyond the low hill in the distance swarming with rebels.  In the first play through, the rebel leader was killed and his forces thoroughly routed, while in the second play through roles were reversed.  Never underestimate the ability of youngsters to roll double 1 when required.


There were several other games including 10/12mm moderns, a WW1 Cambrai game in 20mm and something involving pirates IIRC.  The highlight, and by far the biggest table set up was a Battlegroup Overlord game based on Operation Goodwood.


The centre of the battlefield towards the end of the day, allied tanks streaming forward shoulder to shoulder having shredded the initial German defensive line.



The Allied table edge, plenty of British armour still available in the force pool.  Lots of tank wrecks too.



The German table edge.  Not a lot of bally Jerries to be seen, but what they have are streaming forward through the embankment bridges, ready to have a go at the plucky Brits.




The guys playing this looked like they were having fun, but it would have been a lot of hard work moving all those vehicles and keeping track of orders.  For my taste, the British armour density was too high for such a long narrow table and my vision of Goodwood was a much more open battlefield.


I also managed a rummage through Andy Grubbs 20mm offerings, giving me some more troops to finish off little projects underway.  The Bring and Buy was interesting, with a tray of 20mm vehicles being tempting, but in the end too many Panthers to be of interest as a job lot.


A great day out and a really nice way to end my 2017 show season.  Next one should be Vapnartak in February, that's a whole 2 months away, but Christmas is coming with the inevitability of an express train.  Can't wait!  Thanks again to Will, Steve and David and, as ever, thanks to you for looking.

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