This is my first Blog and the sidebar at right will tell you a little about me. I used to publish articles and photos of my wargames and those of my group in a magazine which I produced as a PDF and sent to a limited email distribution of about 40-50. I did this from 2000 to 2011 but eventually the input to the content got off the main theme of club games as regular game organisers couldn't find the time to write for it. Increasingly I was writing just about me and my own activities so I thought - Why bother with the hassle of trying to organise other people, I'll just let the world know what interests me.
So I'm setting out on this new adventure at a time when my own life has undergone some major trauma in the form of a life threatening illness and I've decided I need to concentrate a bit more on achieving things before it's too late. Several months later, through the incredible skill of a surgical team and nurses at Cheltenham General Hospital, I'm fully recovered and simply have to have some medication until next Spring which will see me right, hopefully for a good many years to come.
I'm lucky that I can continue my art work and have commissions to last me through to next Summer (but can still take more - see the link to my art website from My Profile). I also, from time to time, get commissioned to make model buildings for wargames and I've done a very pleasing batch of Japanese 28mm buildings since coming out of hospital. Apart from enjoying wargaming with my local group of friends, one of the activities that gives me immense satisfaction is working with my friend Peter to give students at his school exposure to "proper" wargaming. This takes the form of three games per academic year along a theme. In 2009-10 it was World War Two, 1944; in 2010-2011 French and Indian War, and in 2011-12 we will be trying the Seven Years War.
So my Blog will cover any of these activities as I progress them, but with the emphasis on wargaming, wargame figures, and models. My philosophy is that wargames should:
- look good
- have some historical (or maybe literary) credibility
- reach a conclusion in the time players have available
- use simple rules that are picked up easily yet give players plenty of opportunity for decision making
- be played with a gentlemanly spirit where taking part in a competitive way is combined with "give and take" and that playing in the spirit of the period is more important than merely winning.
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| Here are two views of the scratch built Japanese buildings. The figures are Foundry cossacks which are the only vaguely Oriental miniatures I have in my own collection. |
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| Peter and some of his students play a 28mm FIW game "Winter Raid on Fort William Henry" in March 2011 |
The star fort is a scratch built model and is now sold. Here is a photo of it for summer use, without the special snow effects.
Email me Chris Gregg for details if you are interested in commissioning any buildings to your own specifications, prices are very reasonable.
