Joy of Six 2024

On Sunday morning I got up early to drive down to Sheffield Hallam University's city centre campus for the annual Joy of Six event.

Unfortunately Richard Phillips was unable to join us thanks to an automotive failure so the terrain needs of the game we met by Andy Taylor, Neil McCusker and myself. Although I'd have preferred to have Richard's Mat-o-War as our base cloth we managed OK with a couple of Games Workshop battlemats.

Neil moves Soviet airborne troops towards
the Phase 1 target

The game depicted the events at Stary Boleslav which, in our alternative timeline, was the site of a Soviet airborne attack to seize a bridge over a major river.

Looking towards Stary Boleslav from the east

We played the game in four phases:

1. Soviet pathfinder troops take out an anti-aircraft battery outside the city,
2. A Soviet airborne brigade lands and moves to capture the bridge,
3. Czechoslovak troops counterattack from the west,
4. Soviet ground troops attempt to fight through to the bridge from the east.

Stary Boleslav with the AA site in the background 

The game went OK in its little periods of action but we spent most of the day talking to people about the models, the alternative history, and the rules. Unfortunately, being so busy, I forget to take any pictures of the progressive destruction of the city. 

I also failed to take pictures of many of the other games but here are the few I did capture starting with the Battle of Guarda by the Legion of Blokes:

Then there was an interesting-looking ancients game using Matrix Game mechanisms:

Charles Rowntree put together this fabulous Omaha Beach game using a set of rules called All Hell Let Loose: 

Right next-door to us was the battle of Soissons, 1918 by Robert Dunlop. WW1 Spearhead I think:

Also near our table was this game using rules called Sabre Squadron:

Finally for the games I got any pics of there was Per Brodén and Nick Dorrell's lovely Great Northern War offering:

Purchases at Joy of Six were few and far between but I'll get back to you about them in a few days.