More about me

I thought that I would start by saying a bit more about who I am, and how I got here.

I am a 40-something (well almost 50 actually) wargamer living near Cambridge. Like so many people of my generation I started wargaming as a kid at the school and wargaming club. Mostly that was WW2 though I always wanted to do Napoleonics but never had enough energy to paint them. I had much fun but when I got to university wargaming was not practical and got dropped. Besides I had got very into RPGs, something which I remain active in as I still play in regular weekly sessions.

Then about 5 years ago or so, I happened back into wargaming. I had a bit more time as my kids were growing up and no longer so demanding. Then I came across a couple of computer games set in the Napoleonic period and I thought; 'it would be fun to do this with figures'. Since then I have been building a collection of figures in 15mm mainly for Napoleonics and ACW, plus a few dark age figures.

I am especially fond of the Too Fat Lardies stable of games. I first came across them about 4 years ago when I bought copies of Sharp Practice,  and Le Feu Sacre, their Napoleonic rules for skirmish and larger scale games. To be honest I did not quite 'get' them to start with, but when I watched Richard Clarke running a game at Salute a couple of years later, it clicked. I really like the way their mechanisms for 'friction' and 'fog or war' add to the uncertainty of the game and they get away from I-go U-go. I might also add that my background in RPG has been one where I have always enjoyed 'tinkering' with rules systems; this is certainly something I still enjoy doing and it goes well with the Lardie the philosophy.

In truth I do not have that much time available as I have a pretty busy job which is in London. This means I only have time for painting at weekends; I am not especially quick even then, so things move at a fairly slow pace. For similar reasons I have not joined a wargames club, though I do have some chums that I play games with; more on that to follow. 

I am married to an illustrator and printmaker (see link to her art website). My other interests include cycling, opera, history more generally and walking our two rescue dogs, Twix and Lucy:

Two of my favourite friends