A collection of loot from Hay on Wye*
The Falklands collection picked up for a song in Hay on Wye. I've always had something of a shine for the Falklands as it is the first contemporary conflict that I actually remember being aware of, admittedly some years after it occurred. My mother bought me a book about it when I was small, Raymond Briggs polemic "The Tin Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman." My view of the conflict has become somewhat more nuanced since then.
I took part in a Falklands war campaign, which was something of a curates egg, the results of which were described in an issue of the Classic Wargamers Journal. I also ran an abortive matrix game version which I got from a magazine, but that didn't progress as I radically underestimated the difficulty of umpiring the game.
I have a yen to do something in that line again, hence the haul of books. I have the Two Fat Lardies "We'll have to bloody walk" expansion for I ain't been shot Mum, but I think most likely I'll use an adapted version of the tried and trusted Memoir '44 rules, probably leaning rather heavily on the rules presented in the new Winter Wars supplement.
*The Ospreys were bought from an elderly chap whose observations amused me greatly.
"Lovely people the Argentinians. Great at football and shite at war."
This is no where near as funny when divorced from the euphonious Welsh accent in which it was delivered.
I wonder if the Matrix Game version was the one I wrote? I ran it several times - most recently on the 25th anniversary of the real thing.
ReplyDeleteQuite possibly - did you include a possibility of Peruvian intervention?
ReplyDeleteI've tried to like Matrix Games, I really have, but they've just never worked for me. I've always found free KS or something more structured a far more natural tool in my hand.
Ah yes, that affair broke out a months after I resigned my commission in our navy and opened a wargames shop. I remember thoughts along the lines of "Damn! I thought they said there weren't going to be any more wars unless the Big One happens".
ReplyDeleteSuddenly 29 years seems like a long time ago.
-Ross
It's a Matrix Game - all possibilities are included! There was certainly an enthusiastic Chilean intervention in one game, and a skulking Soviet fleet in another!
ReplyDeleteRoss - I believe there was a Greek Johnny who said something along the lines of "Only the dead have seen the end of war".
ReplyDeleteThough truth be told he probably just made it up to impress some winsome young fellow.
Tim - I'm sure that someday we'll get to play one and it will be splendid, but I don't think I'll be the fellow to run it.