Sunburnt Suburbia

Beach holiday

Australia Day fell on a Thursday, and Campbell and Melissa invited us to Rye for the holiday. We all took Friday off and made a long weekend.

On the way down we stopped in at the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park. We regularly visit there, as it has constantly changing sculptures and lovely lawns for a picnic. This time we found a large labyrinth. 

On Friday we went to the Sorrento Back Beach, which at low tide has a particularly flat rock plateau inset with small and large rock pools. 

We swum in the large pool, and then someone who liked our colourful bathers offered to take this photo.

Later that day Findley and I started a game of CrossFire, but the siren of the beach called again, so we went to McCrae Beach for the sunset. 

We finished our CrossFire game with the morning sun creating wonderful shadows across the gaming table. The beauty of gaming tables dense with terrain provides one of my main reasons for playing CrossFire. 

By late Saturday morning we had returned to the Sorrento rock pools; this time with the Millers. They showed us the location of a ledge which places you behind a waterfall when a large enough wave washes over the outer rocks. The world teems with such serendipitous delights. With God's love, we can see them all.

By Saturday afternoon, we had exhausted ourselves, so we sat around reading and eating - a great finish. 

Craig Wyton's memorial service

Today I went to Craig Wyton's memorial service. He died at 46 from a massive heart attack. It was a surprise. Though he was overweight, he exercised. He also did not drink or smoke. He left a wife and four children, all teenagers. 

I knew Craig because he introduced Callum and I to Nunawading Wargames Association. He did a good job, as I still attend regularly. For NWA Craig organised Cheezecon, a light-hearted war games tournament for several years. I certainly enjoyed playing in the tournament - it was the only one I played. 

The Salvation Army hosted the memorial service, as Craig was a member of the congregation. The service impressed me. Three people - his brother, his boss, and his close war gaming friend - spoke about different aspects of his life. That moved me, along with several of the NWA members who attended. 

The service closed with the pastor asking all present to think about their relationship with Jesus and God. This surprised me, but it felt right and didn't seem to unsettle anyone. Certainly a friend's death provides the trigger to consider such big questions. 

British WW2 pirate raid

Yesterday my war games club had an evening of games inspired by Talk Like A Pirate Day. There were games of Legends of the High Seas, which features 18th-century pirates, and several other rule sets for table-top pirate play. 

On a suggestion from Mike Goldyn, I decided to push the theme by organising a CrossFire game feature a British Commando raid. Pirates were more commonly raiders from the sea, which is what Commandos did. In fact the Germans regarded the Commandos as pirates, and treated them as such.

I put more than 90 hours work into making terrain, models and rules for a CrossFire scenario based on Operation Archery, a Commando raid on the Norwegian village of South Vaagso. The reconnaisance photo below shows the table top for our game. The raid occurred on 27 December 1941, which justifies the snowy look. 

On Friday myself and two others passed the evening playing the scenario. I played the Germans and tried to follow historical tactics. Matt and Stephen played the British. We found that our game followed closely the actual history of the raid - the machine gun bunker was flanked on the right, the German forces in the hotel just to the right of the church provided stiff resistance, and it was difficult to flank the town from the hill above because of open ground just before the houses. 

Like many game scenarios that follow closely the historical situation, the historical outcome occurred. This was total elimination of German resistance by midday. That though pleased me, as it shows that CrossFire simulates WW2 infantry combat well, and that I designed the scenario well. 

Michael's table at Nunawading Wargames Association Games Day

Like last year, I set up a public participation table at the Games Day for my wargame club. I invited people to come play CrossFire, my favourite tabletop wargame. Because the rules are so simple, in 10 minutes most people can learn the basics necessary start playing. 

This year I my table-top modelled Gavrus in Normandy, as the 2nd Battalion Argylls and Sutherlands Highlanders made a heroic stand there on 29 June 1944. This area has lots of large hedges, orchards and closed in fields. It makes for an interesting table-top. I put a lot of work into modelling the terrain, so I did appreciate all the complements I received for the tabletop. 

Last year a young man Matt played CrossFire with me. He enjoyed the game, and became a NWA member. This year he brought along four friends, and they all had a good time either playing the game or watching. They peppered the day with little narratives around the table-top events - in effect turning the table into a video game. 

At the day's end Susan and I joined other NWA members and their wives for a meal. Susan had some fun there too, meeting an experienced teacher who enjoyed sharing the positive aspects of teaching. 

Is war gaming Christian?

 

I like playing tabletop war games. I find playing the role of a leader in battle interesting, and the way a game tries to simulate the important aspects of the 'real world' really sparks my imagination. However, I also try to be a Christian. Jesus did not agree with violence as a solution to conflict between peoples. Matthew 5:39 and Matthew 19:19 provide just two examples of a consistent theme. So I worry about being a hypocrite.

This leads to the question - does playing war games mean that I agree with war? It is always easy to provide a logical sounding justification for an emotional preference, so any answer to this question will have bias. A game and real war however, are not the same thing.

I know that I am against proactive war. In February 2003 we marched in London against the war in Iraq, and I still think that military force in Afghanistan and Iraq was wrong. I do think that war against an illegal invasion, or to prevent use of state military forces to murder civilians has a stronger justification. 

Playing a war game reminds me that war does cause injury and death. The game becomes a form of remembrance, which does have value. Not remembering history does doom us to repeat it. 

In the end though, war games do provide me lots of enjoyment, more than abstract games like Go or Bridge. Part of a Christian life is joyful play, and that is what war games are - as simple as that. 

Journey of Imagination - First Steps

Late last year on the Internet I came across the CrossFire rules, and people's enthusiastic reviews caught my interest. A table-top game with no fixed turns and no measurements has certain attractions. For a start, ‘real’ skirmish battles have no fixed turns. From my reading, but more importantly from the careful watching of war films, they appear to occur as a series of short-intense actions where one side takes action and the other side reacts. If that action falters, there occurs the opportunity for counter attack. Secondly, and particularly important to slow players like myself, measurement slows a game down. But I couldn't find a copy of the Crossfire rules. 

This led my mind to Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K). Like quite a few people, I enjoy the mythology and context of WH40K. A far future dark age, from which democracy has gone and technology has stagnated, which in turn leads to a return of the culture of war and warriors, has an imaginative appeal. In such a future we can play any rules we can agree - we can play rules unconstrained by historical accuracy. 

However I do not like the current WH40K rules. Tactics take a poor second to exploiting special rules and optimizing army lists. I am the first to admit that my grasp of tactics is like that of Hawthorn on a premiership flag, most limited. However WH40K does favor the player who uses army capabilities and special rules like a fox uses cunning on a rabbit. This make me hesitant to use the rules outside a trusted few opponents. 

So, how about a set of WH40K rules drawing from the key ideas of Crossfire and maintaining the character of WH40K? That could be a fast playing, 'realistic' game in which good tactics and good luck take lead roles. Yes, I would be creating yet another set of sci-fi skirmish rules. The Internet almost abounds with them. That doesn’t matter, it is my imaginative journey.

LOTR game in complete style

Callum and I have played the Lord of the Rings tabletop game for some years. Today we finally had all our models and all our scenery complete. Our game looked just like those in the White Dwarf magazine - nicely painted models standing around in pretty scenery. It has been a multi-year goal to reach that point, as we started playing table top war games in 2003. However we have made it. 

By the way, Callum won again, killing all 49 of my models and only losing 7 of his. It was a massacre. 

Michael

Story from Cheezecon

In late October I played in a WarHammer 40K tournament. One of my opponents was Damien, an imaginative man with an interesting army of Space Marines. We had a great battle, which he turned into a story around the theme of conflict of values. I enjoyed the translation of our travails into a narrative. It adds a dimension to the game.

Michael

NWA and Cheezecon

My table-top war gaming fun has expanded over the last week. Friday last week Callum and I went to the Nunawading Wargames Association regular meeting. We took our models, but they had an informal tournament for another game system planned. So rather than disappoint us, Craig the organiser and others enthusiastically invited us to participate.

The tournament was part of their Cheezecon series. These are tournaments of table top games with an emphasis on fun and silliness rather than wining brutal battles. As they say:

What makes them different from other tournaments is simple - to win you need to be 4th place getter! This means that unlike most tournaments where arguments about rules are life and death to serious contenders in their quest to dominate, actually winning every game gets you pretty much nowhere! In fact we give bonus points to players for "exploiting" rules in fun ways.

Last Friday they lent each of models and introduced us to a simple, fun rules system called Hordes of the Things. The game was quick to play and the opponents encouraging so Callum and I both had a great time. In the following week I bought the rules and Callum raided eBay for some cheap models.

Today was the WarHammer 40K Cheezecon tournament. I took all my painted models and lost three of three games. I probably lost because I was a poor player, but I still think that there are significant problems with the WarHammer 40K rules. However, I got the prize for the most bonus points because my model combination was so strange and because I lost all games. All-in-all spending some time playing table top war games with some unusual characters, whom most people would call 'geeks', looks good to me.

WarHammer 40K, perfect for teenage boys

Today Callum & I went to Phoenix Games Association, a Games Workshop gaming club nearby, to scout it out. We played a short game each against other club members. Callum had a great time, with a closely fought battle of his Tau army against Dwain's Tyranid swarm. Dwain showed all the fun aspects of WarHammer 40K, celebrating his opponents successes and pro-actively pointing out all the Tyranid special rules so that Callum had a chance to counter them.

My experience was not so pleasant. I played against a teenage boy who took great delete in ambushing me with with all the special rules that his force had. This leads to the most significant problem with WarHammer, the 'bunny' rules. WarHammer 40K has so many special rules that people create model collections specifically to exploit the rule and surprise, like a fox onto a bunny, their opponents. This takes away much of the fun of the game, as a person loses not to a better player, but a player who knows all the special rules. This is much the same as learning all the cheats in video games, which teenage boys like to do. Thus WarHammer 40K is the perfect table-top wargame for teenage boys, because it teems with cheats. Older people like me grow out of it - instead preferring a game that requires good tactics and some luck.
Michael