Fallen Icon

Here is the Nine O'Clock News. Sid Vicious, controversial bass player in the Sex Pistols'  has been shot and killed by an army checkpoint in Streatham, south London earlier today. An army spokesperson for the Emergency Government said that Sid Vicious, real name John Simon Ritchie, was shot when he failed to stop after a warning was given and when challenged appeared to throw an object at the soldiers manning the checkpoint.

Checkpoint Zulu Two Two

Streatham High Street

11:32am

Sporadic violence followed the news of the death of the pop icon and the security forces have been placed on high alert. Further news, in Jordan...

.
The Sun can reveal that Sid Vicious was mistaken by the army for Mad Trot Terrorist Alan Tate. Punk Rockers around the world are in shock. Violence has erupted in major cities throughout Great Britain. In  Berlin and New York violent demonstrations have been held by distraught fans.

Punk Rocker Janet Scissors, 19, said "The streets aren't safe. They'll just shoot anyone." Lewis Benjamin, 24, known as 'Dog' in Punk Rock circles, said "Whitehall think they've got us up against the wall but this will just put more teenage guerrillas on the tarmac."

Checkpoint Zulu Two Two

Streatham High Street

11:33am

Office 5 Whitehall, S Branch, transcript of report

by Private George, 'Dodd', McLaren

Err, nineteen, Sir....

I turns to Carol, sorry, Corporal Davies and says, "That's Tate. It's him, it's bloody Alan Tate!" She says, "You're a bit keen aren't you? He's in hiding. Wouldn't be wandering the streets of Streatham for us to capture would he?" She looks at the rogues gallery on her clipboard, then at him. He's with another fella. They look dodgy. See us looking and split up.

She, Corporal Davies, leans in the van and says "Mac we have him, Tate. Quick he might do a runner." They must have heard her or maybe Mac and Titch, Sergeant MacDonald and Private Hewitt getting out the back, as they run.

Sergeant MacDonald shouted "Go!" We went after them. One, I don't remember which, threw a can of Iron Bru or something at us. I dropped to my knee and shouted "Army. Halt or I Fire!" and aimed at the one in the black jacket. Tate. I'm sure it was Tate. I fired two rounds. Missed. He dived into the department store, Pratts. Corporal Davies and I followed, but it was like a jungle in there. Lot's of customers. Places to hide. Sorry, we lost him in the confusion.

....The other? I heard shots, then Sergeant MacDonald shout and fire his weapon about the same time as me. I saw the man in the overcoat sprawled on the ground as I sprinted after Tate.

"Bloody mess Tom!"

Tom, "It's grim reading whatever way you cut it Sir. Shootout in a busy street. Popular icon killed. The press is having a field day"

"A gun was found though? Fired?"

Tom, "Yes. Smith and Wesson. Three rounds fired from chamber. Only recovered one spent round. Too bloody to determine who fired it."

"Perhaps for the best. If we say it's this Viscous fellow, it hands the other side another Che bloody Guevara. A pop rebel turned real rebel. We'll be facing another 1,000 urban players and 10,0000 dickers in a week. No. Deny all links to Clash Action Front. Tate was never there. No weapon found on the scene. Mistaken identity. Have all the green army involved posted to defend an oil rig to keep them out of the way of the press".

PHONE RINGS

Tom, "Tate's been injured. That was SB. Forensics have confirmed the blood on the rear exit Fire Door.  The plods also recovered the object thrown at the checkpoint. UXB Pipe bomb in a Fanta can."

"Get it sent over once it's safe and have June bring in some Penguins".

The Navy Lark

00:37hrs Zulu: HMS Shoestring slips her station off Penzance and makes a dash for a pro Government port. Whoop! Whoop!

I loved Seastrike (WRG Edition) as an adolescent and have picked up a group of tasty Triang Minic 1/1250 waterline diecast Royal Navy warships from eBay to regain some of that innocent pleasure within a Winter of '79 setting.

The models aren't at all bad and came in between £1.50 and £3 each from a private seller.  OK, not quite what I wanted in terms of pure 1979 warships - but have you seen the price of 1/1200 and 1/1250 warship kits? I felt that for a bit of a laugh and an excuse to go Whoop! Whoop! over the kitchen table they would be fine.

Now, Seastrike was fought around a series of islands. Could easily set the naval engagements off the Orkney's, Shetland and Hebrides, but I was also wondering about using Container and Tanker shipping to fulfil the same role within the Channel or Irish Sea?


Cheers
Mark

SITREP: New RH Models

Been a victim of my own success at work. Taken on Business Intelligence and Sharepoint in addition to the online HR Portal. H suddenly became ill too and at one stage we feared for her life, but she's safely in the hands of the medicos and we expect a successful conclusion. All leading to a very quick shift in gears, as you might expect, and wargaming has once again taken a back seat.

Still, managed to grab a day off today for some R&R and to just STOP. May even get back to my Winter of '79 workbench this weekend.

Meanwhile, Rolf at RH Models (Liberation Miniatures) has been beavering away at his usual eclectic release schedule, bringing out several new packs suitable for Winter of '79 and more.

Urban Meltdown;
Urbmeltsqu ; 11 figures , 10 with SLR and 1 with Bren £5.35
UrbmeltsquT; as above in 44 pattern British helmet  £5.35
Urbmeltbren; 2 figures with Bren , 2 NCO's with FN , 1 sniper nya
UrbG3; 9 figures with G3 rifle - use for TW2K West German Home Guard etc NYA

Falklands era Brits 1970's/80's
FalkcomH; 5 figure command pack helmets £2.50
FalkcomA; Command pack in berets - 6 figures. £3.00
FalkcomT; as above 44 pattern helmets £3.00
FalksmgH; 2 figs with stirlings helmets - new/remade £1.00
Falk4; new figs revised as a 4 figure pack £2.00 (GPMGs in helmets)
FalksamT; blowpipe fier in 44 helmet nya
FalkgunT; 4 gun frew in 44 helmets nya
SasFalkrad; 2 radio figs - wool knit cap £1.00
SaSFalkFN: 8 figures with SLR nya
SASFalkMort; 3 man mortar crew nya
SASFalksni; 3 figs with L42 nya

Argentine
ArgSqucc; 10 figures in parka with FN Rifle in canvas covered helmet £4.80

Miscellaneous
ultpccom; Multipupose command pack in officers peaked cap - 6 figs £3.00

Rolf will be at Warfare in Reading on the 17/18th November. If you are going, pop along and say Hi from me. I'm particularly looking forward to the SAS with SLR (SaSFalkFN) and civvies with G3 (UrbG3) becoming available and those SAS signallers (SaSFalkrad) plus civvies in '44 helmet with SLRs are definitely on the shopping list.

Over the past while, I've been buying my RH Models via Pumpkin Models on eBay and thoroughly recommend him as an eBay trader.

Feels good getting back to the blog!

Cheers
Mark

Shut It!! Style figures.

There is an interesting discussion going on over at the Guild. Talk of some new figures that might interest us in 79 land.

http://www.guildwargamers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=314&t=25375&p=276741#p276741


Mike

Panic In Detroit Towers

Breaking news on all Cit-Vid channels................

The exclusive Wealth-Hab-Zone of Detroit Tower was the scene of carnage today as an armed jailbreaking mob of vicious convicted crim-perps shot their way out of the Crim Zone of Penal One.

The Crims storm across the bridge and head for the security gate

The Security booth is taken by "Smiling Al", the crim leader 

Armed with illegal zap pistols the mob overwhelmed the PSC guards manning the security booth and powered down the nano fence. The guards fought hard and numbers of the crims were shot off the bridge from the max sec perp pen. A thin line of PSC troopers was simply overun by a knife and pistol toting gang of liberty hungry thugs, followed up by hardened gangers with armed with burp guns

The crims flood into Detroit Towers

As the PSC caved in, the gangers flooded into the Hab Towers, innocent citizens fleeing by turbo lift and skimmer, carrying what they could. A few hardy citizens joined the remants of the PSC and tried to hold the streets but were shot down by the murderous crims.

Citizens flee as the last few PSC troopers hold off the crazed crims

Meta City is in a state of panic as military gyro copters loaded with Security Consultants are being lifted in to make an assault on Detroit Towers. Reports of vid delivery men being shot by nervous citizens have been denied by the Mayors Office.

Mayor Brumby of the majority Popular Liberal City for the People Party has promised a full investigation and a review of sentencing policy, "this can't happen again," he said on vid link from his apartment on Hab-Sybarite-2.

NEXT! GANG fights MERCS asTHE CITY strikes BACK!!

Thrill overload WARNING!!

Figs - GZG (perps painted by Major Mike), terrain, SWM minis map, rules W79 "Kill-o-Zap" back of a postcard. Inspiration, Dredd3D, 2000AD case files vol1. Inbound: 15mm.co.uk Law Officers plus bikes. Apologies its 2079 not 1979.

Cheers!
Maff



When in Rome

I had this vision for re-energising the story in Winter of '79.  A number of back to back games representing a co-ordinated series of raids by Special Branch and SO13 on suspected terrorist/rebel safe houses. Inspired in part by the dramatic scene in Patriot Games where Alun Armstrong leads an RUC raid on an IRA bomb factory. But equally no less inspired by the synchronisity brought to the table by the cut-out terrain tiles and accessories that came with HOF Fire Team from 15mm.co.uk.

Mr Benn's lodgers at 52 Festive Road

are likely to be behind in the rent this month

Put the two togther and a game emerged. It's worth noting at this point that whilst nominally 15mm, the tiles are perfect with 20mm and even less than heroic size 28mm figures. The tile sheets come with 2-D furniture to cut-out allowing you to create any combination of bathroom, living, sleeping and kitchen spaces. Believe me, whilst a little garish at times, and some of the bedsits I lived in in the eighties were just that garish, these tiles work surprisingly well.Whether it's a single bedsit or a two up, two down, urban terrace.

The other thing to bear in mind is that they are portable and just in case if you are wondering, this is where Rome comes into the picture. I packed HOF Fire Team, the tiles and a small box of unbased miniatures in my hand luggage and took them to Rome. Well, there's only so much L'ispettore Barnaby, "Mio Dio! il vicario è stato pugnalato di nuovo!" one can watch on the TV in the room whilst you partner gets ready for a night out. You are always guaranteed this downtime, so why not put it to some practical use!

During the wait in departures at Edinburgh airport I turned some vague ideas into short d6 tables in my pocket notebook and refined them further during the 3 hour flight over. Something to while away the journey. Using a die roll app on my phone, even I draw the line at taking dice on holiday, I could determine the number of raids in the operation and the background for each. Essentially, this boiled down to where it was taking place, type of property (no. of floors/rooms), numbers and type of security forces involved, deployment, expected targets, opposition, modified by quality of intelligence etc. I'll throw these tables up online by the end of the week as I'm running out of time and energy tonight. But you get the picture.

We'll run up a new security forces op. too, Operation Pantheon, in honour of Rome and then post the AARs shortly after. 

Cheers
Mark

Viva Roma!

Reaching a landmark does have some advantages. Heather arranged a 'surprise' birthday present and whisked me away to Rome to celebrate, and not just the big day, but life.

And what better place to savour the moment than Life restaurant in the Via della Vite, where I enjoyed one of the best meals I've ever eaten, in one of the most friendly, convivial restaurants we've had the pleasure of dining in.

There was plenty else to celebrate. Just before my birthday was the second anniversary of being informed I had five years left to live....eight if I'm "lucky". I don't think about it normally, but when the anniversary comes round it's like waking up in the early hours and staring at the clock to see how much time you have before the alarm goes off. But I'm here now and that's what's important.

If you remember, H. was made redundant earlier in the year and together we experienced the change curve. Not unnaturally, she needed time to reassess her life and what she did next. I'm glad to say it proved to be a hidden opportunity and she is now in a much better job and wondering what stopped her from moving on all these years.

And three days before my birthday, the electronic pay and personnel management project I've been leading finally launched. Built from the ground up, in just eleven months since I returned to work. The last couple of weeks before launch saw problems and delays dropping in like Russian paratroopers from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Causing me tearing up the implementation plan on a daily basis as my timetable became ever more squeezed. However, in true CoD spirit I attacked the issues head on, my team stepped up to the mark and we delivered.

Those of you in similar fields will know it's like giving birth. A long drawn out pregnancy followed by effort, pain, tears and finally joy mixed with relief. Now the job is to smooth out the inevitable kinks, roll it out and implement the other modules.

An upside to all this, is that I've been asked to manage a second team and deliver another high profile pilot. Whilst Tuesday, I'm presenting my vision for bringing together the human factor with IT, BI and HR to create a single conjoined strategy to realise the goals of the business over the next 5 years. I'm sure being a wargamer and spending long hours pouring over SPI games in my youth are finally paying off.

I know you'll understand when I tell you that I've come home many evenings, opened up the blog and have simply been unable to string two words together. And wargaming itself has progressively taken more of a backseat as the weeks have passed. Though there's been days here and there where I've been able to catch quick text chats with Maff on the journey to or from work.

The bubble's burst at work. I am feeling great. My hobby is very much a part of life and everything to celebrate about it. I have a saying pinned up on my project noticeboard in the office "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"  Makes a damn good strategy for life too.

Cheers
Mark