A day of gaming that will long live in the memory!

Its been a while. We have been playing board games and not so much war gaming. Little painting is happening and I am pretty OK with that. But today is different!!!!

This weekend though is the trip to Awdry Towers. Now you just know that this is going to be something extra special. It always is!!! The trouble that Michael goes to is unsurpassed. The models are sublime. The table a thing of joy and the detail, well the detail is just off the chart.

We had been sent our homework. The game is a crossover Witchfinder and Donnybrook with a very huge element of 'Awdry'. A combination of dice and cards and planned to be utter fun based narrative type stuff. I was just bursting with excitement. I awoke a good hour before the alarm clock and was ready to leave much earlier than planned, but I had to wait on the arrival of the Dark Templar. I was struggling to contain myself. Anticipation was off the chart. We drove down to Awdry Towers (an hour), parked up and walked to the house. I glimpsed the board though the front window and Oh My God!

Michael had just excelled himself. Truly.

I am sure the welcome was fantastic and I hope I was not too rude as I manoeuvred to see what the day would bring - just amazing.

I have taken far too many pictures and they don't do the piece of art that the table is any justice but I will share anyway.

The board

Michael supplied everything, the board, the models, the dice, the tea's, the food ...... everything.

Basically the villagers are about to be over run by ghouls and all kinds of ungodly foulness. We are set up on the outskirts of the village with field, roads, hedges, a wheat field, river and a working windmill!! The blades actually go around.

Windmill complete with a tied up Windy Millers daughter

So much to take in. A total joy to play on, but the detail ..... man oh man. My first 'jaw drop' was when I realised that there was a fox in the wheat field which actually had a rabbit in its mouth, I mean come on.

Well fed fox

And then there was the scare crow....

Scare crow

Did you spot the rats? I mean surprises around every corner and there were tonnes more, I promise.

But you gotta love this. The Witchfinder General has obviously been busy!!

Amazing. And just for fun.

We had a shepherd and a flock of sheep, in the background. No reason. Not part of the game. But just there to add layer of interest.

Shepherd and sheep

I played the 'bad guys' in the first game. My hero 'Alain de la Slaughter'!

Evil personified

Ably supported by...

Supporting cast

The Guardsmen of Bling Obedience marching with the guns and The Doom Riders mounted on horseback.

Nice field of fire from the bridge

Can you see how well painted the models are? I mean can you? I wish you could hold one in your hand. They are exquisite!

Gareth of Oldham and his trusty hounds

Gareth of Oldham and his hounds. Notice the babbling brook in the background. Sweet!

Ghouls

A band of Ghouls that were just a joy. Each one was fantastic with loads of unusual detail. Stunning, I mean stunning.

The detail

We should speak of chickens. For many years now we talk of units that run away. It follows them, always. The yellow stripe, the chicken. Once a unit runs it is never forgotten.  Don't care how hard they are, if they run they will be known 'ah thats the unit who ran from my grots when .....' It's a thing. So how could the master enter into the spirt of this gaming lore ? ..... I give you the yellow chicken!!!

Yellow chicken

Units that become 'shaken' and run away need a token. Michael had only gone and made some chickens, yellow ones, to act as tokens. Well I just lost it. I thought that this was the funniest thing I had come across. And it was fantastic to see them in play. And when they 'rallied' it was - take that chicken away!!

Look it was an amazing day. We arrived early and stayed late. We laughed and laughed because the game play just worked so well. The narrative element was key. It was chaos and it was meant to be. You thought you were doing well until your world fell a sunder. This is not competitive gaming, this is fun for the sake of fun with a top quality entourage. This is living life, this is a man putting on a gaming day that anyone on the planet would be privileged to be a part of. This, my friends, is Awdry Towers, a place to be revered, with a host that is generous and welcoming and has prepared to a level of detail that will blow your mind!

I thank you Michael for a spectacular day, well done sir!!