Sheffield Toy Soldier show

Last week a group of us from the YCW went to the Sheffield Toy Soldier show. There was Tim, Peeler Jordan and myself. On the way through we stopped off at the highwayman on the A64 for our usual morale boosting brekkie :) Fully fed and ready for the day ahead we carried onto the venue for the show only missing it once so it was pretty good going.
The show was really good and was slightly different to your standard wargames show in that there were different stalls selling items other than figures. Our game was set up at the back of the hall.





The food was really good, in my opinion it was much better than the usual stuff you get from other shows. The show was really busy early on but I was amazed how quickly it went quiet. It did allow me to get a good deal on a box of terrain for my fantasy games. I got this whole box of terrain for £7

We left after 3:00 to set off back home after a really enjoyable day, we got back to Tim's just after 5:00 and stopped for a cuppa and a natter. I got home just after 7:00 so I got back in plenty of time for Top Gear, just to round off a really good day. Thanks to Peeler, Jordan and Tim for a great day. I will definately be visiting this show again in the future.

Elvington 2010 show pics

First up I'd like to apologize for the lack of activity on the site lately, have just been too busy to put anything up. Secondly I'd like to welcome all the new followers, thanks for joining and hope you enjoy the site.
Right, onto the main subject of this post. The Elvington show was on the 8th and 9th of May. The YCW bunch went there both days to put on a series of games demonstrating the range of stuff we do.

We started the day off in the usual manner of refuelling ourselves for the day ahead with the traditional "fat boy's breakfast".


We then set about getting the table ready, here's Tim's "Toy Soldiers" game, notice the Briton's cows in the field, a nice little touch I think.

This was an interesting little game near to ours, it aimed to compress the whole of WWII into a tactical map based game, quite nifty.

Here's a few of the other games that were being played in the hanger.


















Back on our table we set up a range of other games including, WWI, Colonial, Fantasy and ACW





Here's the backdrop to the show, rather impressive, I can't think of any other shows with a backdrop to match.
To cap off what was already a great day, our group was awarded runner up for the best participation game. Here's Tim accepting the prize.

and finally a close up of the trophy.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and I will try not to leave such a large space of time between posts next time lol.

Battlestations Pacific gameplay

Here's a video I created showing some gameplay footage from the new Battlestations Pacific game. It is the follow up to Battlestations Midway. This time round there are more units to choose from as well as uprated graphics. My brother and I really like this game and have had plenty of fun on the multiplayer modes.
To view this video click the following link http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/battlestations-pacific-gameplay/326891

Silent Hunter III gameplay

OK time for something a bit different. Following on from the post I put up about Silent Hunter III, I created this video of actual gameplay footage. If this proves popular then I will do the same for any future computer games I put on here. If you want to view a full screen version of this you'll find it here http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/310170.html

Silent Hunter III

In my opinion the Silent Hunter series is the best submarine simulator available, and Silent Hunter III is no exception. I know there's a fourth game in the series but being of German ancestry I prefer the earlier games as they put you in charge of a German U-Boat rather than an American submarine.
Because Silent Hunter III has been around for a while it is rather cheap, also if you don't have a gaming store near you the game is now available on Steam. So if you go to the Steam website http://store.steampowered.com/, simply download the application then you can purchase games through their store and download them.
Silent Hunter III has a campaign and individual missions containing everything from the aftermath of the sinking of the Bismarck to sinking convoys.
The game also features a fully detailed control room as well as detailed lookout positions on the bridge and a free roaming camera feature for getting great screenshots.
You can also change the realism of the game, for example you can set dud torpedoes to on or off as well as a whole host of other things.
The campaign mode offers the player to upgrade many features on their submarine such as radar, deck guns and engines. When you start the campaign you select a U-boat to start with by purchasing it. Depending of the year which you start the campaign the selection of U-boats on offer will vary. So if you started in 1939 your choice would be much less than if you started in 1942.
The other feature I like about the game is that there's an action camara which comes up with a little window which displays things like when you fire a torpedoe you can track it's progress. If you click on this smaller picture the game jumps to whatever event is currently happening allowing you to see the action in full screen.
If there's one criticism I have about the game it's that there's no feature for linking it up to a sister game, only another Silent Hunter III gamer. In Silent Hunter II it featured an option to play against a fellow gamer playing Destroyer Command, in which one person took on the role of a U-Boat commander while the other person tried to track them down and sink them in their destroyer.
Other than that though it really is a good game, but if you really do want to battle it out with another person on the surface then Silent Hunter II is still just as good with only slight graphical differences.

and now for something a bit different

OK so I've been putting up a fair bit of 15mm WWII recently. So for a bit of a change here's some of my 6mm WWII, namely some Panthers, KV-1s and T-34s.

Barkmann

This is my 15mm figure of Barkmann in his Panther with repair shop.

Ernst Barkmann was a farmer’s son born in Holstein, Germany, on 25 August 1919. At the age of sixteen he applied for service with the elite Waffen-SS, the armed force of the Nazi Party.

Barkmann saw his first action of the war as a machine gunner with the 9. Kompanie/III. Bataillon of Germania. Distinguishing himself, he was promoted to Rottenführer (Corporal) and received the Wound Badge in Black. He next saw action in 1940 with the invasion of France, earning the Infantry Assault Badge for his participation in three days of battle.

Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, saw Rottenführer Barkmann seriously injured near Dnieprpetrovksk, for which he received the Wound Badge in Silver. He spent the next year recovering and training SS volunteers. Late in 1942 he returned to the Eastern Front.

Assigned to the second company of the ‘Das Reich’ SS-Panzerregiment as a gunner in a Panzer III tank, he proved himself an excellent shot. He was subsequently promoted to Unterscharführer (sergeant) and given command of his own Panzer III just in time for the Third Battle of Kharkov.
He continued to distinguish himself during the mammoth tanks battles around Prokhorovka during the Kursk offensive. In August 1943, Das Reich was withdrawn into reserve. Barkmann was transferred to the fourth company and given a new Panther D tank for the defensive battles in Southern Russia. He was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross for his actions during this time.

In January 1944, Das Reich was ordered to southern France for refit and Barkmann’s battalion was upgraded to the new model Panther. Unfortunately the Allies choose this particular time to mount their invasion of Fortress Europe and ‘Das Reich’ quickly found itself embroiled in the fighting. A month after D-Day, elements of the division went into action against American forces near St. Lô. Here, the legend of Barkmann’s Corner was born and he received the Knight’s Cross and a promotion to Oberscharführer (senior sergeant) for his actions.

During the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, Barkmann spearheaded the main attack against the US 2nd Armored Division. He finished the war knocking out Soviet T-34 tanks near Stuhlweissenburg in March 1945.

US M3s

Here are some M3A1 Halftracks from an American Armoured Rifle Company set I bought a while ago.

Panzergrenadier command

Here's the unmounted command team along with their 2nd in command.

Welcome to my Wargames space

OK time to kick things off. I've recently got quite interested in WWII gaming and have begun assembling the start of a 15mm German army. First up I have some Panzergrenadiers which I've been working on starting with the command halftrack complete with crew.