A visit from an old friend
Earlier this week, I was visited by an old friend called Steve C. I’ve known Steve for a good number of years. We started gaming together at our club a good decade ago and was famous for his cheerful expression and devil may care attitude. He was a true gentleman gamer, win, lose or draw. About four years ago, Steve seemed to dissappear from the scene. I did try contacting him and finally had a visit out of the blue about a year ago - he’d been very ill for the past few years and was still recovering. It was very good to see then and good to see thim this week! For his visit, Steve brought a small box suitcase with him.
Steve and I used to have a friendly rivalry. I fondly remember the Darkest Africa games with his favourite figure - Rufus T Firefly - a Copplestone ‘Groucho’ miniature. We had many a good game of Darkest Africa and even Black Powder (when it first came out) among many other games (including Ticket to Ride).
At our local wargame show (Plymouth PAW) there’s usually a good bring and buy. One year (was it 2004?), we both had our eyes on this ‘job lot’ of Zulus, which came complete with a Rorke’s Drift, barricades and a few British. These were being sold as 3 lots. I ended up buying the buildings, but decided to leave the Zulus and see what else the show had to offer. I could always come back after all…
Steve however went off and bought the Zulus, as they were a very good price. I remember pretending to curse him for picking up such a steal before me. He’d ‘stolen’ my bargain!!! Of course I was joking - it had been fair and square. He bought them first. I did tease him for a while and those Zulus saw a good deal of action, so in the end it didn’t matter who owned them.
Guess what was in the box? The very same Zulus. He was downsizing, clearing out his old stuff and decided to give them to me. He also had a second box of scenery he wanted me to pass onto the local club. In it was lots of grass and scenery foliage, a few hills and some MDF buildings. I’ll tart these up and pass these on to be used in our club games.
Now that Steve is retired, hopefully I will see more of him. You never know, Steve’s Zulus may once again be raiding Rourke’s Drift, with a few reinforcements. And Rufus T Firefly may yet ride again!
