Flames of war - Halmstad game-tournament, May 2024

Early May this year I attended to one of the bigger and nicer

events in my opinion, Flames of war - game tournament!

The tournament was situated in a very nice building in the

center of Halmstad near the Nissan-river.

The house was built in 1912 and has the very best character

in my taste (architectural details, spacious and big windows

and not least parquet floors made of solid oak.

On top of all of this written above the persons that organized

the tournament were all very inviting and I felt more than 

welcome as a newbie-player from the countryside. :) 

At arrival we was briefed about the rules and also how

to play and which person to face in the game.

The tournament also handed out prices to the winners of

the game but also i the class, best painted models/figures.

Very nice tournament that will be held once again in 

august this year at same location.

For more information visit "Flames of war Sweden" on

Facebook. 

Next report will be published about my two games at this

tournament. To be continued!

  

Some 1:32 plastic for my son

On  a secondhand-market online I found a package

of medieval knights, cowboys and indians and Airfix

US infantry(WW2) and British 8th army(WW2).

My son that is only 4 years old needed som more

figures to play with and I thought that this could be

a nice addition to his first "buy" of silver-knights and

riders. All figures are in the 1:32-scale.

This is a nostalgia-report and I remember my first 

buy myself when my father bought med german

and russian infantry on bulk (cheap Airfix-copies

made in Hong kong).These figures was in 1:72-

scale and not so pretty but I played with them as much

as I could in this age. When I got those figures I also

remember that all military-related toys in Sweden were

forbidden to buy (1970-ies). A lot of memories come 

back to me when I watch these pictures and I hope that 

it also gives you outthere som memories also. :)

Great northern war - danish troops

 A Project that has been in very slow progress for years has been

to play small skirmishes within the Great northern war.

The politics and the history during this period 17-1800 has always

been a very interessting to me.

Probably because I was born and raised in this part of Scandinavia

and many old houses and landmarks still remains and make the history

come alive.

I already have carolingian infantry, cavalry and artillery in the

1:72-scale(20mm) and these figures from Zvezda are indeed very good

looking figures/models and they have inspiredme to proceed making

something worthy fot placing at the gaming-table.

Danish troops can be bought in tin but I choose to make a conversion

using plastic-soldiers from Strelets.

I choose french miniatures from the range War of the Spanish Succession.

The period is late 1700-th Century and will be very nice painted in the

danish colours. Big hats, and long coats and also wigs is in my opinion

danish details during the GNW-period.

The figures are nicely sculpted and I chose different boxes to make a 

diversity. I will mount the figures 1,2 and 3 on each base.  

I also have good litterature to paint the figures as close as possible

to the period eventhough it is a conversion.

Next report about this topic will show both the painted figures and

my inspirational source(books and pictures).

Preparations for Flames of war-convent

 For at least 3 years I have been a inactive player but

for two weeks ago I was invited to a Flames of war -

convent in Halmstad by Flames of war-Sweden.

I couldn´t resist and my first task was to make a force

to play with. I have been collecting for years but because

of work, family and new house etc I have not played more

than a handful of games.

I like the late war setup more than the early WW2 most

because of the creative ways of making new models and

variants.

I choose to play the germans this time (I have germans,

soviets, japanese and finns in my collection).

The points were set to 100 and at home I gathered only

75 ppoints because I was a newbie to play the Fow-game

version 4.

At location on the Fow-convent a friendly gamer made my

force complete and lending a battery of 10,5cm artillery

and a platoon of recons (Panzerkampfwagen 2). 

My infantry was pazergrenadiers with on MG42 and one 

panzerfaust in each squad and also mounted in tracked

APC´s (3: Sdkfz 251 with (MG) each and 1: Sdkfz 251

with a 2cm automatic-cannon).

A very good force indeed. In the next two reports I will 

write about the convent itself and my games.

Civilization 1 - Nostalgia find

 Two weeks ago I was about to make maintenance-service on of our cars and

drove to a nearby village about 30km away from our home.

Because my wife has the other car I was stuck in this village until the

service was done but this was certainly not a problem because the sun

was shining and a break in the hectic everyday-life was more than welcome.

I started the break with a swedish fika and after that I Went for a walk

in the city-center and visited the local second-hand-shop runned by the

Church. The second-hand-shop was one of the largest Iever visited and

in 3 floors. I didn´t have any expectations and was very happy when I

found the computer-game Civilization 1 in original package from the

1980-ies. It was in good condition and nothing was missing and the price

was even better, 4 Euros! (on the internet I have found prices from 100 and

even 400 Euros for this game but the most expensive are also sealed)

The only backside is that this game is designated for Mac but nevertheless

I am very happy with this find because in my childhood I really loved this

game.

The game for those that don´t know is a turnbased game that gives you the

role of simulating a king or a ruler of a growing country/civilization

and it involves science, economy, culture, building and military.

I like this games very much because it is never monotonous and eventhough

the graphics are very basic and never live up to todays standards I also

like the artistic design.

You start with a black map and your first units explore and then the map

reveal land,islands, rivers and oceans.

In my growing Collection I have Civ 1-5 but also Test of time(not on picture).

The last Civilization 6 and don´t know that much about but I will for sure

buy me a copy of this in the future.

Last but least on my visit to the shop I bought a book about calligraphy

and one book about how to read drawings.

I also found another computergame named Napoleon - total war, two tin-soldiers

and a BIG medieval siege-tower. The tower is not in the right scale for 28mm

but will be used in big fantasy-battles anyway. :)

To share my joy of this/these finds I give you a:"what´s in the box".

Enjoy! :)

Grey dicetray

I was not completely happy with my first dicetray so

I made another upgraded version eventhough making

the first was a big step forward in comparison having

none. This one is grey and heavy but also use the 

free-space inside to store dices and other things.

The core is made of chipboard with a grey paint.

The outer measurements are 240x330x100mm.

The red plastic is left overs from a package and is very

good to soften when rolling the dices and gives a 

good feeling! :) 

Dicetray in oak

 One very common "problem" playing tabletop-games or by all

means any game using dices are that they can slip away under

furniture or simply getting lost.

To prevent this I have made a very simple dice-tray made

of oak-veneer and a core of mdf.

The dice-tray measure 100mm high, 270mm wide and 220mm deep.

When finished I got second thoughts about the vulnerable

corners and I will probably add 4 L-shaped corners made of

pine. If I go for clear-coat on these corners or White is

not decided. What is not visible on the Pictures are that I

have also added selfadhesive felt under the tray for a more

smooth feeling but also to shelter my tables when playing

games.

Japanese mortars and soviets

 On the web-page Flames of war - Sweden I stumbled over

some nice soviet bits and figures together with a medium

japanes 86/94mm mortar platoon(4) and hard-hitting 160mm 

soviet mortar (4 pcs, platoon).

In the buy I also got some 76mm soviet zis-artillery

and a single T-70 light and fast tank.

Some usable soviet gun-service and tank-riders together

with infantry equipped with ppsh-41.

At first I hoped to use the artillery to my finnish

force as conquered goods but it was not allowed so it

will be a addition to my Soviet partisans instead.

My japanese force will be much more deadly with the

mortars and I already have some light anti-tank-artillery

to give extra support.

The soviet 120mm will be spot on to be used in late-war

scenarios. All models in the 15mm-scale for the game

Flames of war.