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Wargaming WW IIin 20 mm with Rapid Fire! Rules.
I never really liked the idea of WW II gaming, it always seemed to be wall to wall 1/72nd plastic tanks with some badly painted plastic figures thrown in for good measure. My regular wargaming partner, Paul Beckman (long suffering!) had tried repeatedly to get me interested in WW II gaming but for the reasons given above I had always demurred. And then along came Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh with what I believe were called the Grimsby WW II rules, for me Colin's article in Wargames illustrated (remember that "family" wargaming magazine?) on the East African/ Somaliland Campaign was a turning point. Soon after, I started on my 20mm Italian army with figures from Tony Chadburn at Raventhorpe Miniatures, from there it moved on to Japanese, early American Marines (Colin's Wake Island article) 1940 French, Romanians, early War Soviets, Hungarians, late War Germans, Fallschirmjagers, 11th Armoured and 21st Panzer in Normandy. The rules had now grown into "Rapid Fire" along with a number of Period supplements, these rules have provided hours of enjoyment, wargaming real or imagined scenarios in the safety of my loft with my like minded friends, Paul Beckmann and Steve Farran. If you were to ask me which are my favourites of the above armies then it would probably be a tie between my Romanians, 1940 French and my 21st Panzer in Normandy, each has unusual equipment and also have a certain air of romance attached too them. I must admit that WW II has now taken somewhat of a back seat compared to DBM ancients. however I have included some Photographs of my kit, all painted by yours truly and also some of the articles and scenarios that have formed the basis of a number of games. There are now a great number of manufacture's of figures, vehicles and scenics for the period, no longer are you required to spend hours with the glue tube attempting to put together that difficult kit when you can get something altogether better in Resin or white metal for just a little extra in price.
I'm drawn somewhat to the Eastern front and especially to the Romanians, these chaps have always been given a bad press and the Germans were always quick to blame their allies for their short comings, but when you examine the Romanian casualties in the War you can see the they literally died trying to hold up their end of the bargain!
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