Well, thanks to Bootie for accepting my request, and also for running such a great website. I'm a bit over-awed by the range and depth of its content.
So, what's my backstory? First, ID. I grew up in East London, and still recall playing amongst the ruins of bombed out buildings (as a lad, my Dad had watched as a V1 dropped and exploded nearby as he sat on the front door step). At the time, every other film was either a WWII movie or a Western. As a young lad, my best mate's Dad called me Brengun, rather than Brendan. In response to my quizzical look, he explained that as an infantryman in the British Army he'd landed on a Normandy beach in June 1944, armed with a Brengun. I dimly remember him talking about what a great weapon it was to fire. Naturally, I took my new nickname as a compliment.
Soon after, Dad bought me my first Airfix WWII figures and my journey into wargaming began. It's been a long trek, often interrupted by real life, family and kids, and too much work. More recently - like over 25 years ago! - I got heavily, too deeply, into Advanced Squad Leader. Finding it left little time for much else, I switched to other board games in the late 2000s, when one of my sparring partners introduced me to Combat Mission. I think the first one I played was the original Shock Force back in 2011. We played for a couple of years. Then we lost contact (he had a family crisis) and my will to play Combat Mission on my own evaporated over time.
In 2016, I got back into Combat Mission with CMBN and CMFI and played a few opposed scenarios. These were always Meeting Engagements, which invariably felt like a fast rush to get to the scenario objectives with the mostest, while being shelled immediately on departing deployment zones. To be honest, while I enjoyed them for what they were, I found that something was lacking...I liked playing the historical scenarios. It may have been that in Meeting Engagements your opponent knows you'll be heading as quickly as possible towards those objectives and can shell your forces from the get-go. So my interest waned again...
...but never quite went away, thanks to 'Usually Hapless' and his You Tube channel, which I've been subscribed to for years. So cheers @Hapless for keeping me connected with Combat Mission through your CM videos. This is why I'm here. To date, I have CMBN + Commonwealth Forces + Market Garden (Engine 4, version 4.03), and CMFI (Game Engine 4, version 2.11). I know, I know - there's a lot more to Combat Mission nowadays, and the Cold War module looks impressive. So the credit card is going to take a hit, imminently.
Once again, a big thank you, Bootie. I salute you, sir! Thanks also to the rest of you guys too, for being part of this community. I need to look around and find that latest piece of software for sharing game files. Back in the day, I used Dropbox, but I'm sure someone will point me in the direction of the latest, recommended software for that. Time to load up that Bren mag!
So, what's my backstory? First, ID. I grew up in East London, and still recall playing amongst the ruins of bombed out buildings (as a lad, my Dad had watched as a V1 dropped and exploded nearby as he sat on the front door step). At the time, every other film was either a WWII movie or a Western. As a young lad, my best mate's Dad called me Brengun, rather than Brendan. In response to my quizzical look, he explained that as an infantryman in the British Army he'd landed on a Normandy beach in June 1944, armed with a Brengun. I dimly remember him talking about what a great weapon it was to fire. Naturally, I took my new nickname as a compliment.
Soon after, Dad bought me my first Airfix WWII figures and my journey into wargaming began. It's been a long trek, often interrupted by real life, family and kids, and too much work. More recently - like over 25 years ago! - I got heavily, too deeply, into Advanced Squad Leader. Finding it left little time for much else, I switched to other board games in the late 2000s, when one of my sparring partners introduced me to Combat Mission. I think the first one I played was the original Shock Force back in 2011. We played for a couple of years. Then we lost contact (he had a family crisis) and my will to play Combat Mission on my own evaporated over time.
In 2016, I got back into Combat Mission with CMBN and CMFI and played a few opposed scenarios. These were always Meeting Engagements, which invariably felt like a fast rush to get to the scenario objectives with the mostest, while being shelled immediately on departing deployment zones. To be honest, while I enjoyed them for what they were, I found that something was lacking...I liked playing the historical scenarios. It may have been that in Meeting Engagements your opponent knows you'll be heading as quickly as possible towards those objectives and can shell your forces from the get-go. So my interest waned again...
...but never quite went away, thanks to 'Usually Hapless' and his You Tube channel, which I've been subscribed to for years. So cheers @Hapless for keeping me connected with Combat Mission through your CM videos. This is why I'm here. To date, I have CMBN + Commonwealth Forces + Market Garden (Engine 4, version 4.03), and CMFI (Game Engine 4, version 2.11). I know, I know - there's a lot more to Combat Mission nowadays, and the Cold War module looks impressive. So the credit card is going to take a hit, imminently.
Once again, a big thank you, Bootie. I salute you, sir! Thanks also to the rest of you guys too, for being part of this community. I need to look around and find that latest piece of software for sharing game files. Back in the day, I used Dropbox, but I'm sure someone will point me in the direction of the latest, recommended software for that. Time to load up that Bren mag!