2nd Edition 40k - Global Campaign - The Siege of Brakkar Chain - 40K 2nd Edition World Wide Campaign - Introduction

 The chaps down under who organize Sustained Fire 2nd 40k Event are organizing a global Second Edition 40k campaign in the style of the old White Dwarf and Store Campaigns. 

It looks interesting and a motivation to dig out my old 40k 1st and 2nd Edition models and get my armies finally finished. 

So if you fancy it, why not join in.. plenty of 3D prints and proxies if you don't have the original period figures. 

There are some great 2nd channels on line, like Bring and Battle who organise regular games and events. 

Little Wars TV - A great Historical Gaming Channel and Blog + Patreon

 A while back I came across Lttle Wars TV, After Action Report (AAR / Batrep) for their Vietnam Games and since I have thoroughly enjoyed watching their videos and also their Blog posts on Spotify. 
These have been been great to listen too while busy with other stuff. 

They have a Youtube channel and Spotify Blog and a Patreon. Their website has some free stuff like many of the scenarios for their games. 

Their club appears to have a very nice location and venue and one I am rather generous of. 
My club has over 150 members but mostly Sci-fi and Fantasy is played. A few Boltaction Games and the occasional Chain of Command or Black powder. So its great to see their interest in historical gaming and its benefits. 

So here are their links:
Website: https://www.littlewarstv.com/ 
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76MBP546mk
Spotify Blog: https://open.spotify.com/show/2IVvAM1vXeEzmgUDGxy2q2?si=7118ed3f6b2d42c5

If you like Historical Gaming.. well check their stuff out. I certainly can recommend it. 
The production level of their videos is very very good and they have obviously got some talented editors etc. 
I also love the what-if games and posing of historical questions. 

Its interesting to see how a lot of their stuff is run in smaller scales and though I do love my 28mm it is nice to see the likes of the 6mm tank battalions etc, which you can sadly never game in 28mm. 

While listening back through some of their early Blogs, one of the question posed to a couple of their interviewees, was how did they see the decline in historical gaming and this struck a cord. 
The club I help run has over 150 members. We are the largest club in Wales and probably if not, one of the largest clubs in the UK.
We run three gaming nights a week.. two mostly RPG focused evenings and one Boardgames and Wargames focused evening So on a our weekly Thursday Night Gaming for Boardgames and Wargames, we have an attendance ranging from 45 to 60 at peak times. So for a second I will exclude our lovely Boardgamers. The miniature wargamers we are left with, mojoratively play fantasy or science fiction games. Yes 40k is of course our greatest group. With the likes of Oldworld and AOS and Frostgrave and Fantasy battles etc making up the rest. 
We do have a few historical players. Mostly playing Boltaction WW2 at time of writing. Occasionally some chain of command WW2 gets played and some Black Powders or African Bush Wars but its very safe to say that historical gaming makes up a small proportion. Which is a I think a little sad. 
It would be nice to see more historical games played. 

In one of the blogs by Little Wars they discuss the use of Wargaming by a History teacher and later Dean of a private school and how well it was received by teenage students and the skills and the interests it helped develop in those youths over time. And how their historical gaming society was running schemes to encourage new players and younger players to historical gaming. 

Due to legal reasons our club has to ensure any minors (Under 18s in UK) are accompanied by a responsible adult for safeguarding reasons as the club uses multiple sperate rooms at our venue and so by law we have to ensure child safety. We do get some younger players but most are again into the Science fiction or Fantasy games usually their fathers are playing too in general. 

So I decided to look at the BHGS - British Historical Games Society : https://www.bhgs.org.uk/
Seeing if they were doing similar. Sadly it appears from their website, they are primarily focused on tournament events and competitive play, rather than historical and narrative play such enjoyed by the Little Wars TV members. 

This was also in line with the question in one of their blogs put to the Managing Director of Osprey books about the future of historical wargaming. And I must profess it got me thinking and initially I was quite struck by the decline and changes over the year in our club, but change of venue etc have all played a part. 

But looking at the whole of Historical Gaming Industry in the UK.. and how clubs etc are faring. I must say I feel we are seeing a decline. And may be things need to be done to tackle it. 
Not exactly sure on what and how. But certainly I think we need to do something as a hobby and industry.  Something I will be mulling over going forward. 

So if you have read this far on this post. Well done and please comment below on your thoughts. 

Skirmish on Rynn's World - Battle for Jadeberry Hill - Oldie but a goodie

 And so a few weeks have passed and I am still looking into running a campaign. 
Briefly it looked like we might be returning to some semi-normal during the Covid 19 pandemic, but the UK is about to head back into a lock down. 

So it looks like I might be playing this scenario with a friend at home in the future.. 

This was first published scenario for Rogue Trader. Published in White Dward Issue 94 1987. 

This was in the days when you ideally needed a GM and two opposing players for games. When Rogue trader 40K was designed to be played in a narrative style with the story being key and gaming freedom. 
Yes the intro blurb speaks of using proxies.. can you imaging GW saying that in this day of utter corporate control!

Something tells me this was one of a number of scenario's that were planned and never really got published. Probably due to a host of reasons. 
If you want a full look at the campaign you and find it here: 

I will do a write up of the scenario shortly and will go over the elements and why it is till a great scenario and fun to play. 

Master of Campaigns Reporting - A possible Beginning!

 And so in 1995 GW ran the Ichar IV global campaign. Tyranids, versus Space Marines, Imperial Guard and Eldar Allies. The idea was simple. Run lots of games over a single weekend at the various games stores. Each store representing a location on the world of Ichar IV and the side with the most wins would capture that location and the thus the side with the most locations would win the war! 

And so in White Dwarf Issue 78 and 79 the campaign was written up. 

A PDF of the relevant White Dwarf Articles can be found HERE! (And if you like Oldhammer, Join the FB Page.. )

Further campaigns followed and a few details can be found on the WIKI Here. 

As a youngster these campaigns were impressive and I recall my GW store running several "campaigns" in advance of the global Ichar IV campaign event. These were several years before and were a mix of Rogue Trader 40K and Spacemarine/EPIC. The games centered around a central theme and usually ran for a month or so from what I dimly remember. At the time I had a black painted Dark Angels force, a Squat force and an Imperial Guard force for 40K. Playing RT, 2nd edition, again from my slightly dodgy memory. 

The series of games would be run and we would all gather around to hear the "update" and get the briefing for the next game and eagerly discuss how and who would team up to play which games at which fiction locations and eagerly try and get more units painted up for the next weekend to be able to add to our forces (Yes even then GW were hot on the pulse of driving sales! )

I recall it all came down very close in one campaign to a battle between orks and marines and a single shokattack gun hit on the marine commander caused a cascading failure of moral and bang the orks won! And despite loosing the sorry bunch of gangly 11 to 16 year old's all cheered and recounted out battle stories as we headed for our various buses home! 

I think since then I have always loved games where they felt part of something larger or had some sort of "presence" within a narrative and I guess these store run campaigns and the battle reports in White Dwarf at the time, have given me a lasting love to narrative games and campaigns. 

AND FINALLY.... 

After that wander down memory lane.. I get to the point.. 

I fancy running another campaign in that style. Given the various Corona Virus restrictions in the world right now and the risks from face to face gaming at a store or shop etc... I cannot do what my initial interest was to do which was to book Element Games venue for a weekend and run a series of games there. 

So instead I think I might explore if the old hammer community and fans of some retro gaming might fancy a more simple campaign run over a few months. Do some bi-weekly updates and suggested mission types.. record the over all progress of each faction and notable heroics of particular commanders and models and try and get a community built story going for some fun. 

So.. what do folks thing?