300 not out!

Last October I received an email from Dan at Wargames Illustrated outlining their plans for a 'Special' heavyweight edition to mark the 300th issue of the magazine in September 2012 and asking if I would like to contribute an article for inclusion on their chosen theme of Last Stands. An intriguing offer which it seemed a might churlish to turn down, so I accepted, even though at that point I had no idea what I might choose for my contribution to the theme!
Move forward several months and you find, much painting and play testing later, that I've arrived at the finished product: a 1940's Operation Zeelowe game from our ongoing 'Pig Who-o-o-o-ey!' themed campaigns. At this point, for those of you not familiar with the wonderful world of P G Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, with Clarence, Lord Emsworth, his prize fat pig, the Empress of Blandings and a whole host of improbable characters I can only refer you to a local library or bookshop and hope you too will be captivated by their charm...
So, yesterday I was up bright and early to finish preparation here in GHQ for the playing of the final version of the game ~ Lord Emsworth's Last Stand, no less. Phil and Jon duly arrived in good time to take on their roles as the gallant British defenders of freedom and all we hold dear and the vile Hun respectively, while Dan unpacked his photographic paraphernalia and tested lighting exposures and camera angles and all that technical stuff!

Dan closes in on a shot of the Fallschirmjaegers skulking in the woods around Blandings.

There was a lot of fighting in Market Blandings itself, where Phil's LDV put up gallant resistance to the Wehrmacht forces pressing them on two fronts.

The armed Blandings Castle staff, nobly lead by Clarence himself, stoutly defended the castle ~ and the pig ~ from Jon's Falschrimjaegers, against enormous odds it must be said!









Of course I can't reveal who was bringing home the bacon at the conclusion of the game, that would rather spoil things for the September issue. Now, all I need to do is decipher all those scribbled notes I made yesterday and the article can be finished off for Dan PDQ. Toodle Pip!