With A Little Help

So far I only have one competition in my 2024 diary as the Northern League dates aren't out yet.   It'll come as no surprise to regular readers that it's "The King in the North" weekend event at Haxby (York) in October.  However, my attendance was in doubt until recently and thereby hangs a tale.

Not just a competition
For the last two years, my wife has travelled with me to Haxby.  During the day she visited York while I played with toy soldiers.  In the evenings we frequented the excellent pubs and restaurants of Haxby.  This made a really good weekend break for both of us.

However, last year my wife said she didn't really fancy a third weekend looking round York on her own: fair enough really.  This put my attendance in doubt because the evenings in Haxby would have been a lot less sociable and made the accommodation relatively more expensive.  Thankfully, this issue has been resolved.

While we were visiting a female friend of ours in deepest Herefordshire, I mentioned the above and, without any prompting, our friend said she "really must visit York".  On the off chance, I tentatively floated the idea of her joining us in October so that she and my wife could explore York together. I was amazed when she and my wife immediately agreed!

The trip was back on.  All this without any urging or cajoling on my part.

Theme & army availability
This left the thorny issue of what army to use.   This year's theme is "The Punic Pond from the Death of Alexander to the Death of Julius Caesar (320BC-45 BC)".  Nothing like a snappy title is there?  Sadly, I don’t have a suitable army and there's no way I'll be able to paint a full army in time.

I mentioned this to a few people during the last year's event and one of my opponents offered to lend me an army, which was very kind.  In the end I've secured the loan of a army much closer to home.  Thanks to Bill Skinner, a fellow Nantwich resident, I'll be taking some of his extensive Hellenistic collection to York later this year.  Not only is this is far more convenient, it means I can schedule a few practice games too.

Having created my army list, Bill checked his collection and has most of what I'd chosen but not all.  I need to paint half a dozen units which I should be able do by October.

York here we come
Having sorted all this, I quickly signed up for KITN 2024 and reserved our accommodation.  All made possible with a little help from my friends.  Thanks everyone.