Cavalier 2012 - Photo's

I got back a little earlier than expected from Cavalier so I had tome to work through my pictures in double quick time to get them posted here. Its was a good show with plenty of excellent stand-out display games that caught the eye. The Rejects were in attendance and did our collective best to alleviate the recession with our spending. We also had a chance to talk to lots of the traders and those clubs running games. We are planning on running a game (our first display game) later in the year at broadside and as newbies to the art of running a display we have lots to learn.

I have posted my pictures as a slide show below but first I have to mention a couple of the outstanding display games being run at the show. For me the best game was The Alamo by Loughton Strike Force. The sheer number of figures on the table was a sight to behold, as were the masses of casualty markers as the battle progressed. It was a visual feast and it certainly hit the spot.

Another beautifully prepared game with some excellently painted miniatures was Defendiing the Bridge at Obourg (1914) by Gravesend Gamers Guild. This WWI battle table was full of character and detailed terrain. But it was the quality of the painted miniatures that made this game stand out. 

Here's the slideshow with the full collection of pictures.

Rejects on Tour - Cavalier 2012

The Laughing Cavalier (1624) by Frans Hals

Tomorrow myself and some of the Rejects will be going to Cavalier 2012 in Tunbridge. Cavalier is traditionally the first show of the year for the group and as a newish member last year was my first time at this event. I really enjoyed it (pictures from Cavalier 2011 here) and am looking forward to kicking off the season with this years event.

Both One Lover Ray and the Angry Lurker have already posted about this trip but this is my opportunity to say, see you there! Keep an eye out for us, come say hello and please don't feel intimidated by our collective tonnage!

As usual I'll be bringing my camera along and no doubt will be shooting pictures like a man possessed throughout the day, so expect to see them posted here early next week.

Wargames Illustrated 293

The March Issue of Wargames Illustrated arrived on my doorstep last week and I'd almost forgotten to write about it because I have been so absorbed with the FOW 3rd Edition rules (more on this later). The gods of fate are cruel and both the new rulebook and WI 293 arrived within an hour of my leaving on a business trip to Southampton. My wife texted me to say they had been delivered, by which time I was 50 miles away negotiating traffic on the world largest car park (the M25).

This months Theme are large wargames fought on giant tables. So we get three articles covering different periods but each played out on the sort of games table that most of us would kill to own. The first article looks at Dettingen, Jun 1743 which occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession. The game was played by Worcester Wargames Club and featured thousands of miniatures over a huge L shaped table. The level of work and detail that went onto this game made the article fun to read and certainly made me wish I'd been in on it!

The second game was The Empire Cracks, 406AD and recreates a section of the Rhine near Mainz which is being crossed by a mixed band of Barbarian tribes. This marked a significant moment in the decline of Roman power in Northern Gaul. The table fought over is 8 foot wide and a huge 22 foot long and covered from one end to the next with detailed terrain including a Roman Fort guarding the river crossing and a former roman town now in the hands of the Barbarians. 

The third and final game featured was Chancellorsville, May 1863 and was fought across several tables each representing a different section of the battlefield. The game used the Black Powder rules and featured two umpires, 15 players and over 6000 figures. A truly spectacular game and the article is full of mouth watering pictures. 

I still have several articles left to read but this is proving to be an issue that has plenty for everyone and is sure to whet the appetite of any wargamer. 

Dot Com

I've just bought a Domain Name for BLMA. You can now link to my Blog using the new address www.blmablog.com or continue using the old address which was so long and unwieldy I can't even be bothered to reproduce it here... which is one of the reasons I decided to buy a Domain after all this time.

Right, some background. Three years ago when I started this Blog it had a different name; BigLee's Mini Painting Blog. Aside from being a bit of a mouthful (it doesn't exactly trip off the tongue) this also translated into an awful URL address that even I found hard to remember. As the Blog developed I realised that the Blog's name didn't represent everything that I wanted to write about. So after about six months I changed it to BigLee's Miniature Adventures. Of course changing the name alone couldn't undo the old URL address which remained incomprehensible and seemed even less relevant to the site it represented.

About 18 months ago I began another planned revamp of the Blog starting with a layout and colour scheme redesign and culminating in my introducing readers to a shortened version of the blogname - BLMA. The idea was to slowly migrate readers towards using this short name to refer to my Blog before making the final change, purchasing a suitable domain name. So here we are, new personal domain name in place and ready to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world....bwahaha.

Will it make much of a difference? Er, probably not. All the old links on other sites and on blogrolls will still work, the old address will still point to the new domain and my Blog is still hosted by Blogger so it won't even look different. But the new address does look a lot better (which satisfies my sick need for tidiness and order) and is a lot easier to remember. Its also short enough to fit on a T-shirt (more on this at a later date!) and will make promoting my blog easier. So there you go, something of a non-event for visitors to the site but a big event for me because it's one more step in my plan for global domination.