The Kit That Started it All

Patrick brought over his Chinese Warlord stuff and some bottles of Ginger Mead last night for a game of A World Aflame. The scenario involved my drunken attempt to break through some trench lines and reinforce a tenuous bridgehead.

New bunker to anchor the trench line

New entrenched hill with gun position

My army deployed around the local Happy Buddha Golden Rice Bowl franchise to storm the bunker, make the trenches untenable and open the way to the second bridge.

Ready to attack, note the mighty levels of armoured support

Maxim guns for base of fire. "I'll have a rice bowl with fish heads to go"

While the Mad Padre pushed on my bridgehead on my left, leaving many bodies from both sides littering the trench, I threw my whole weight at his bunker anchoring the end of his trench, covered by fire from my Maxim guns on the Buddha hill. My FOO (in the pavilion to the left of the Golden Buddha) had access to some impressive artillery, but bad phone lines ("Welcome to artillery support. Your call is important to us. Please hold until we can connect you to the first available battery."), so my waves of infantry surged forward without a barrage.

I overran the Padre's bunker quite handily, but then trying to fight down the trench cost me a lot of troops. Although the FOO did finally get through and used some siege guns to rearrange the Padre's supports, bringing the game to a bloody draw.

Crawling over the trenches you've probably noticed this fellow

The Aifix WW1 Mk V tank.

This is the model that started my whole hobby.

Back when I was maybe 5 or 6, someone with no idea of what was age appropriate got me one, which I put together with the sponsons upside down and never did figure out how to get the unditching wheels attached. My dad figured I need some men to go with it and took me down to McCormick's Hobbies (it's still there on Oxford St. near the corner of Richmond in London) where I got a box each of the Airfix WW1 Americans and WW1 Germans. Over the next decade I spent a lot of my collected birthday and Christmas money on that spinner rack of Airfix figures.

The rest, as they say, is history.