Looking for Missing History Case 2: Helm's Deep

The second case in this semi-regular, new column I'm putting down both here and on YouTube, I'm going to be looking not for pictures, but for information.

Because this is a case that has also been occupying the mind of one of my long lasting gaming buddies, Jo, as well as my own.

And it is a rather big one, literally, because take a look at the header picture of this blog and that is where it is all about

Case 2: where did Helm's Deep go?

Years ago, Jo and me where involved in this massive demonstration game at our own Crisis wargame show, the Battle of Helm's Deep, using back then the second version of the rules, The Two Towers.

The building of the fortress had taken many hours, days, weeks and months, as did the painting of the forces, as the whole project took about a year to complete.  Jo and Tom DG build the fortress in plaster, and provided about half of the besieging Uruk-hai.  I on the other hand provided all the defenders on the fortress, the whole Riders of Rohan relieve force, and the other half of the Uruk-hai (yes, I have a large collection).

After the show (I wasn't involved in the Osgiliath the year after) my forces where storaged at home (and still there mostly, but it'll be a long restoration job after all those years in the garage) and Helm's Deep moved to our club premises.

And that is where the mystery begins.  It stood there for 2-3 years, before both Jo (for work) and I went away from TSA for a while, and didn't pay attention to the Deep on those rare occassions we did appear (usually to pay our membership once a year).  But when we started to return 'in earnest', the Deep had disappeared.

Now, stories are far and wide if you here people talking, ranging from the Deep moving to England after a Crisis trader or club bought it, to it being tossed away as it only gathered dust and just stood there, unplayed..

But fact is, neither of us actually knows exactly what happened to our fantastic fortress, nor what became afterwards of it.

So was there anyone who can tell us more about this?

Well, ironically a few weeks ago, in the HQ club Facebook group, people started talking about a large Mordor army online.  I mentioned it paled our Deep and forces, as this was a truly HUGE amount of Orcs.

Then someone reacted with "hasn't the Deep been sold", and someone winkingly even that he knew to whom.  This got my intrest going and I decided to ask for some more information, as I just wanted to know what happened to the "crowning achievement" of playing LotR at the club, and if it still existed, was it still played on, where and how it ended up where it did... those sorts of things.

And so I came into contact with an anonymous source, whom we will call Mister Underhill.  We went into private talks, and from that I learned that the Deep was sold to the befriended club at a TSA Open Day years ago, as it just stood there gathering dust.  Let's call the responsible sellers now "Mr Makespace and Mr Clearout".

But does that mean the mystery is resolved?  No it is not, because Mister Underhill could tell me that the Deep is now indeed somewhere in the UK.  You see, after being at HQ for a time, an englishman visited their club and took an intrest in the epic fortress.  He made an offer and that was duly accepted, so now the Deep left the premises of Mister Underhill's club and moved with Mr England to unknown boundaries.

Unfortunatly, Mr Underhill couldn`t recall the name of Mr England, and he went through the effort of asking around for me at his club if someone knew.  That came back as a negative though, meaning any chance of finding out if she still exists or is being played on will be as good as lost.

UNLESS

Someone reads this brabbling of mine and can tell me more, even come forward and show some pictures of the Deep still being played or on display...

So if you are "Mr England" or know him, or the club he is perhaps a member from and can tell more, feel free to comment down here and let us know.

And help put closure to this mystery for all time sake...