Fictional Histories: Stewart Boughtflower

Fictional Histories is a Fine Art project that seeks to analyze the world of tabletop gaming and looks to use the voice of the hobby to tell the stories of the men and women who engage in the hobby community. This work was among 4 others that were displayed at the Gatewood Gallery in May of 2017. 

This is the second post of those 4 pieces that features an interview with fellow blogger Stewart Boughtflower [aka. Zzzzzz] whose in-depth approach to storytelling and narrative expansion has been a key influence on the Jornath campaign. In this diorama, I attempted to capture the drama of the Battle of the Cudlip Line, a mighty apocalypse game featured on Mr. Boughtflower's blog Devos IV, in which Imperial troops sought to break through Traitor forces to gain control of the Colil Promethium Refinery. For the diorama, I thought to look at the mixture of traitor forces after their defeat in the engagement, part of what makes Devos IV particularly compelling is the immense history and character of the forces involved in the fighting. I thought to show a cross section of the rebels regrouping in scattered pockets at the edges of the refinery complex. 

Stewart Boughtflower.

“What tabletop games do you play and how often?”

40K, used to be max 3 times a year, now haven't played for over two years. I've been playing the same MERP/RM campaign since 1986; this went through a renaissance in the Mid noughties where we were playing once a month for a couple of years. Again, due to the same reason (children) this hasn't happened for a few years either.

“What is the most memorable thing to happen to you during a tabletop game?”

In living memory, there was a game with Col Corbane and Admiral Drax which involved most of my collection.  I got four consecutive blog posts out of that one.  But just seeing over forty Leman Russ and two Warhounds on the table (along with the rest) was absolutely fabulous.

“Can you tell me more about the lore, setting and context of the game you were playing during that memorable event?”

There was an attack on the Cudlip Lines defence network, this was supposed to be a diversion by 17 Korps to divert attention from 18 Corps attack on the Colill Promethium refinery.  One of 17 Korps Divisional Commanders, a Vostroyan General whose name began in with a P, identified the Schwerepunkt and committed the Corbainians to an assault.  The Neighbouring Division (my precious DKK) had to support them or they'd have been wiped out.   In the event, with the late arrival of the Warhounds, the attack succeeded and the Vostroyan General whose name began with P was promoted and sent to another warzone whilst the Corbainians had lost so much that they had to be withdrawn from the ORBAT.

“Can you tell me about the character/s you were playing or that participated in that event”

I had the thrusting knob end of 902 Division of 17 Korps of 72 Army Group on the table - DKK 19 Armd Regt, Armageddon 22nd Armd Regt, Saranian 5th Inf Regt - the armoured heart of 17 Korps.

“What does tabletop gaming mean to you?”

It's a social thing - I only play with people who bring their armies to Devos IV in order to be a part of it. The RPG group has remained largely unchanged since the 1990s.

“What do you think the upswing in the number of people playing tabletop games, both in person and online means, in social terms?”

There's been an upswing ?  Who knew ?