The Joy of Six 2023

Yesterday was The Joy of Six in Sheffield, a war-games show dedicated to the delights of 6mm gaming. I've wanted to go and check it out for a while so this year, setting off at 7am and picking up Andy en route I headed 'oop norf' to investigate.

With a mix of participation and demo games, and a small but bespoke selection of traders in 6mm wares the show was a delight and it was hard to restrict my spending to my what I'd tentatively planned pre-show. Anyway here are a section of photos of some of the games that caught my eye...

The Fall of Khartoum 1885:

Daniel Hodgson's superb looking game saw Gordon manage to escape the hordes of the Madhi. 6mm colonial gaming really does look awesome when put on like this...

Chef du Pont 1944:

The Peterborough Wargames Club put on this impressive looking Normandy game using I Ain't Been Shot Mum...

The Battle of Scarif:

One for the Star Wars fans, the Battle of Scarif from Rogue One. Charles Rowntree put this stunning looking game on using his All Hell Let Loose rules.

D-Day:

The Legion of Blokes put on this impressive looking D-Day beach landing using 6mm infantry and tanks, with smaller scale (1/700th IIRC) landing craft and ships...

The Battle of Britain 1940:

Storm of Steel's 1/600th Battle of Britain game using Bag The Hun certainly caught the eye - and the imagination. Good job Tumbling Dice weren't one of the vendors...

Operation Taifun - The Invasion of Leros 1943:

The Deeside Defenders put on this wonderful looking game set in the Mediterranean in 1943. I have a pile of white metal from the 2D6 Wargaming Crete Kickstarter that may well get moved up the painting list having seen this...

Prague Spring 1948:

Some lovely buildings on the Cold War Commanders table as they fought out a post-war armoured battle.

The Battle of Vyazma 1812:

A lovely looking Napoleonic game using Blucher by COGS. The miniatures were exquisitely painted...

The Battle of Fraustadt 1706:

An eye catching Great Norther War game put on by Per Broden and Nick Dorrell using The Twilight of the Sun King rules. I managed to resist the urge to buy a set and some figures from Baccus!

There were some other great looking games that I meant  to go back and take photos of but forgot as Heroics & Ros, Grumbler and Irregular took my money off me, so apologies if that included you/

Five Games That Made Me The Gamer I Am Today: (4) Full Thrust (2nd edition)

From fantasy it was a small step to boldly go into SF wargaming though after playing one game of Warhammer 40,000 I wasn't impressed with the rules although I bought far too many 40K figures! :D Simon and I did have a traditional annual pre-Xmas game of the GW/FASA Star Trek III: Starship Combat Game but whilst we liked the background the game itself didn't inspire repeated play. It was not until 1991 that I discovered a small A5 photocopied set of spaceship combat rules that within one year was re-released as an A4 second edition with a full colour cover...

4. Full Thrust (2nd edition) by Jon Tuffley (1992)

Compared to the complexity of American rules like the aforementioned Star Trek game or the legendary Star Fleet Battles, Full Thrust used simple mechanisms that allowed you to command a fleet of up to a dozen spaceships of varying type and have a challenging game in an evening with minimal record keeping. This 'Keep It Simple' approach built on my experience with Warhammer 2nd edition and has coloured my preferences in game play to this day.

For a couple of years Full Thrust dominated my gaming building up fleets from GZG and other companies (one having all the ships snapped off their bases by an unsupervised over enthusiastic toddler!), Simon, James and myself also raising Star Trek fleets using the MicroMachines models and running popular Star Trek: Full Thrust participation games at shows across the UK.

My gaming eventually moved into other areas with Aeronef replacing Full Thrust as my "flying ships" game but I still have fond memories of Full Thrust and one day will dust off my NAC fleet and repair the ESU one to boldly go once again...

ps. a PDF of the rules and the supplements can be downloaded for free from the Ground Zero Games website here.

WH40K: Wrath of the Space Wolves

Played a couple of games against Rich at BIG yesterday. First off he suggested we try the current edition of 40K. Not having played a game since 1989(!) I wasn't sure what to expect. We played two different Space Marine 750 point armies. The game was fun and ebbed back and forth, but I still couldn't get my head around the relative infectiveness of missile fire in what is supposed to be an SF game.



The melee combat was fun (the game showing its fantasy roots) and advantage swung back and to, I thought I was about to win, but some poor dice rolling let me down at the death and Rich emerged the victor...

Overall, I'm happy to play the odd 40K game like this, but I can't see myself getting into it in any major way...

Snapdragon Studio 6mm SF Scenery

We're having a bit of a move round in Bleaseworld which has led to the discovery of certain "lost" items in the loft including some of the display boards from when Wessex Games took Snapdragon Studio's 6mm SF range around shows in the nineties. These were stuck to black wooden boards but I have managed to prise them off and they can now be use for gaming.

It seems that photos of the range - which as you can see is high quality and stands the test of time - are quite rare, so here are the items I have rediscovered so far (there are some larger pieces that I will photograph when I find them).

Fire Direction Centre

Guard Tower

Trench

Ambush Position

Ambush Position (rear)

VTOL Landing Pad

Enclosed Hard Shelter

ICBM Site

I decide to add a bit of variety to the trade stand by painting a few items up in non temperate schemes such as these desert pieces...

Light Weapons Casemate

Small Bunker with Razorwire

Light Weapons Bunker

Tank Position

...and these snowy ones.

Firebay

Command Post 

Light Weapons Bunker

These two pieces were sat in a filing cabinet and had no identifying codes or descriptions on. I think the top one is a mortar team bunker but may be mistaken.