A Friendly Warning

 

It's too late for me but if you are at a point of decision, stay away and save yourselves.

I took Friday off for the weekend just past and traveled to Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales (Australia) for a wargaming bonanza with my bestie Grant. We decided this time we would return to an old favourite, WW2 20mm encounter with Rapid Fire (second edition).

On the way there (2.5 hour drive) I blasted my car stereo with old favourite war movie themes and admit to being a bit excited. It's been a few years and it's humorous to think I can still get excited about playing with my WW2 toy solders.

I apologise for not taking any photos so this isn't an AAR. We fought a reinforced brigade action (so quite large) and we played the scenario without turn limits for two days on a large 1800 x 4000mm table for about 12 hours. That's 6' x 13' for those not yet caught up with the metric system. By the end of it we were mentally cooked but had fought to a conclusion. At the end of the game we agreed to make our next encounter another WW2 Rapid Fire game set in the Western European theatre 1944 just as we had done. And why?

In spite of having a considerable array of figures and models which I have accumulated for my late war British forces over the last 20 years, it's still anything but complete. Any bystander would look at the collection and think, "my oh my, what an impressive array" They would be right ... and yet oh, so wrong.

I have three batteries of artillery ... but I'm short on observer elements. I have several battalions of infantry ... but I'm short on support weapons, higher command elements and above all I am always desperately short in transport. In other games from earlier periods you paint your battalions of infantry and viola! You are good to go. Unless I want to crawl from my start line in these games and possibly even fail to get my infantry into action at all, I need vehicle transportation - and lot's of it. I can barely motorize one battalion as it currently stands.

I've always had a blind spot with Anti-Aircraft capability and never bothered, to my repeated cost. Now I am determined to build by AA battery I've had in the shed for years but there's still more. If I want to properly co-ordinate my artillery through other spotters, I need a radio relay capability - a radio truck. Yet another bloody truck.

I've just ordered AUD100.00 worth of medics, ambulance crew and hospital staff so I can better support my infantry - Rapid Fire has some really nifty rules and makes this a real asset to have in my arsenal. So now, I'm making a large hospital tent to go with it. And all this extra fit-out is for one army in one theatre. If you fancy gaming in another period of the war or another place, then you repeat the process all over - desert colour schemes, early war colour schemes, late war, jungle and even winter schemes if you are that way inclined. I won't even discuss the specific demands it can make on terrain requirements. My problem (one of several) is that I AM that way inclined.

Up to last week, I was working on just a couple of extra elements and some fire effects to bring something new to the game. I always like to do that. A pleasant distraction from my other bigger hobby plans and commitments. Now I've derailed current projects and am returning to OZ to prep for the next game and move closer to completing this army - but it's like chasing a mirage.

I think I can distinctly define seven armies I have built and continue to build upon for Rapid Fire. This genre of wargaming is literally never ending. It's definitely one of those periods where if I had to stick with just one (like someone had a pistol to my head) I could forever game and build in WW2 and never get to the end. But it's an itch which can never be properly scratched. It's one of the reasons I am resolutely immune to the allure of Bolt Action or Chain of Command and the Siren song of 28mm skirmish games in this period - I already have my hands full. A long time ago I moved far from whetting my appetite ... I'm choking on this stuff.

For me, this is the only scale and battalion and brigade level games suits me down to the ground - it's more than enough to be going on with forever. My advice is that if you haven't yet indulged and are seriously contemplating taking up WW2 wargaming, stay away from my madness and look to skirmish or at least a smaller scale.

My scale, 20mm is both the best of worlds and the worst.