Martyn Smith RIP

A really difficult post for me to type. Martyn Smith shown above on the right shaking hnads with Keith, passed away last night after a long battle with cancer.

I know that all Stoke Wargames Club members both past and present are tonight thinking of Martyn and the good times they shared with him. I have mentioned him before in this blog. Martyn was a constant friend and wargaming companion over the last 20 years. We travelled the length and breadth of the country with him visiting shows (often getting lost along the way). The games at his house either in his garage or dining room were legendary. He had a propensity for buying and painting armies and then selling them to fund a new period. His knowledge of militairy history was vast and you could always rely on him having the answer for some obscure fact whether it be on Ancient campaigns or German tanks. And everything inbetween.

To my knoweldge he never spoke badly of anyone and I know for a fact everyone who met him found him to be a genuine, friendly, funny character and a pleasure to be around. Countless are the times when standing around a table we have been doubled up with laughter, unable to speak with tears running down our faces. He was a genuinely nice bloke.

He wasn't bad at wargaming either. He earned the nickname 'Six Smith' for his uncanny ability with a D6. He won the inaugural club Warhammer tournament in splendid style using a Vampire Counts army to thrash the previousley all conquering Lizardmen army in the final. We always knew things were going well when he would gaze at the table, rubbing his his hands together so fast he could make fire. Personally I lost far more games against him than I won, but each one was memorable and I shall always cherish my memories of each encounter.

We last gamed together at Mark Whites house on 4th August 2010, playing on the same side in a 15mm Napoleonic thrash (Martyns favourite word for a good game) up against Tim and Baz. It was like rolling back the years to my first time at the club.

Martyn can be seen below in the middle, on form as usual.

Well, I've so much to say, but I am unable to do justice to it at the moment.

Rest in peace old lad.

Wargamer

Not sure why the layout is so bad on the Rome post but despite editing it several times it still comes out looking crap. Sorry about that.

Today I went down to the 'Wargamer' show in Great Barr. This use to be held in Aston a few years ago, in September if I recall. Back then it rivalled Alumwell for number of traders and demo games. Now though it is showing its age. The number of traders is reduced with no big figure manufacturers there. The games ranged from quite nice to pretty poor efforts.

Nicest game was by the 'Cobridge Old Contemptibles', playing out a Penninsular encounter in 28mm using 'Carnage and Glory' computer moderated rules. A handful of units a side with lots of character and Spanish.

Really nice to catch up with Jon Murphy and Jeff Davies. Jeff was playing for a change as he normally organises and umpires ACW games. I hadn't seen Jeff for some time and it was nice to see him. He continues his enthusiasm for the hobby and he is probably the major reason I am a wargamer and ACW nut to this day. We had a good chat about all things wargaming and beyond.

I also spoke to Jon Murphy about

http://www.stoke-challenge.co.uk/

which is a small event run in Stoke on Trent every year involving numerous wargames competitions. Along with Keith, we may look at expandingay into the an 'open day' with some participation games and demos. I also discussed the possibility of putting on a Peter Pig competition, probably PBI but maybe AK47 as well, with upto 16 or so players. I'll keep you posted.

Keith was there wih Ade and Martin. Especially good to see Martyn for reasons I wont go into, but if by any chance your reading this mate, Lisa and me are thinking of you. Keep rolling those 6's old lad.

Game and more painting

Had an excellent game of Regiment of Foote last night with Martyn my long time wargames opponent. It was his first game of Regiment of Foote but we managed to play to a conclusion within 3 hours or so (taking into account I was a bit rusty too!)

Here we see the field of battle at dawn. This little piece of England is the border of the counties of Barpshire and Scruttockshire where those two rivals for the heart of Lady Geraldine, The Earl of Trent, Benton Smythe and Sir Marmaduke Evans MP are heading for a clash of arms. The crossroads is known locally as Bayleighs Cross. The date is 4th April 1642....


The two armies deployed, Sir Marmaduke (me) with his Roundheads to the left and the Earl of Trent (Martyn) to the right.

Martyn was defending after the campaign section of the rules, but after four marches each, he lost only one unit at the deployment . This meant it was going to be a hard game for the attacker (me!) to win. Still, Marmaduke girded his loins and after an early morning prayer session, he stood in his stirrups and ordered the advance. This shot shows the slow advance of the foote in the centre. In the background the Royalist horse were getting the better of things which gave them free reign later in the battle.

A clash between Deverells Roundhead Cuirassiers having the worst of it against a veteran unit of Royalist horse led by the dashing Prince Eugene.

More Royalist horse deploying to the field behind the a conscript Bluecoat regiment, shaking in their boots as facing them was a horde of Puritanical roundheads about to trample all over them.

A general shot of the field showing essential wargaming impedimentia, Peter Pig dice, beer, biscuits and a nice cup of tea.

A dramatic shot of some Roundhead dragoons on foote, creeping around the hedgerows on their left flank. They had a tough game skirimishing with their Royalist counterparts but did their job preventing the Royalist horse getting around to the rear.

It was a great game that ended in a winning draw for the Royalists with their veteran cavalry having practically free reign by games end. Although I had control of the centre with my foote, they were feeling exposed as all but one of my Regiments of horse (and a conscript unit at that!) had routed from the field.

Marmaduke had no option but to retire from the field to reorganise his forces muttering "Odds tis a small thing that you have! The Earl of Trent quaffed on ale in the local. An aide of his was heard to say "zooks sir,we have but fought lightly today!"

We used the proposed modifications from the RFCM Yahoogroup that Peter Pig put up in November. The main changes being to the assault phase. A greatly reduced number of dice are now used, with a result that infantry fights in particular can be less decisive. I thought they worked very well, but as ever a couple of questions came up.

1. There are no factors in the new 'Fight' table for charger cavalry or to take account of the quality of the units fighting. On the quality issue, the saving rolls may account for this but maybe there should be something for having a better class of troops in a fight (+2d6 for using better class troops than opponent....maybe +1 for trained v conscript and 2D6 for veteran v conscript). I appreciate the new table is designed to reduce the number of dice rolled, but I do feel charger cavalry need a plus as well.

2.The cavalry who rout cavalry opponents table perhaps should be for cavalry verses infantry too as in the main rules victorious cavalry pursue off table similar to when fighting cavalry.

Thumbs up from me for the changes. Looking forward to the next clash between Marmaduke and the Earl of Trent as the Earl follows up on his minor victory. Next game in a couple of weeks, not sure what yet!

If you look to the right you will see my painting points are creeping up. 164 now. Thats more point than I have brought so far this year. The latest editions are Viet Cong with RPGS and LMGs, US Marines with LAWs, a Reb unit for CWB along with some officers and markers. Only a couple of bits left for CWB now and then a game hopefully!

On a completely different note myself and Lisa saw 'Slumdog Millionaire' the other night and we both thought it was one of the best films we have seen in a long time. Uplifting stuff in these times of fiscal hardship!

Sean