Gaming table, Part II.

I've been working on the tiles for the new table.  They need quite a bit of work, and I needed to pick up some more materials.  The table holds twelve 2ft x 2ft tiles.  There will be a few tiles that are just plan, flat terrain, suitable for placing other terrain on.  Others will have terrain built into them.

1/4 hill.  The profile on the edge matches the other three.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

The year is now half way over.  Give it a minute.  If you're like me, that's pretty mind blowing stuff.  I can't actually account for about half of that time.  I had some big plans at the beginning of the year.  I think it's time to stop and take stock and see if I'm on track to make my goals.

A new blog to follow

My friend Jonathan and I have been blogging for awhile now.  I, obviously, have a few battle reports on my page.  Many of those have been against Tony and his Corsairs, playing LotR.  Tony has finally succumbed to the dark side of the hobby, and started his own blog.  Please take a moment and drop over and gander at his first couple of posts.  Huntsman's Hobbies is, currently, chronicling the rise of a new faction for In Her Majesty's Name.

The Mercenary Company of Captain Charles Grey look like they will be a flavorful and interesting opponent for my Clerks and Writers.

And now for something completely different...

I have not accomplished much on the hobby front in the last few weeks, but this weekend has been very productive.  For four years I've been planning the game table I wanted to build in the basement.  Something has always come up that stopped me from working on it.

The table, nearly complete.

I won a Prize!

I entered a prize draw on the Trouble at T'Mill blog, which is well worth your time to check out.  I'm not sure how I beat out those gits Ray and Fran, who win approximately 80% of all blog draws on the internet.

My prizes are visible on this post.  I'm quite excited as I don't have a commissar for my IG army and can always use some more gribbly aliens.

Thank you very much Mike.  It's very generous and much appreciated.

P.S.  I have never actually met Ray or Fran and cannot confirm or deny their gitness status, though they seem like lovely fellows, from all accounts.

1000 Foot General's leadership tweaks

The 1000 Foot General has a post on leadership tweaks for your generals in Hail Caesar games.  This is a great idea and one I'd love to check out.  If you play HC, or if you just want to change things around in your games, head on over and take a look at what he's got.

Alexander the Great

The Major General Commandant's Clerks and Writers - In Her Majesty's Name IV

Major Waller sat quietly in the chair.  Outwardly he was the picture of calm professionalism.  Inside, well that was another story all together.  Inside he was a typhoon of emotion.  He'd fought the Boxers in China.  He'd battled the Moro's in the Philippines.  He'd led men on one of the hardest and most desperate marches in Marine Corps history.  He should not feel this way sitting in a waiting room.

Col. Waller, just before retirement.

Memorial Day

Treasures from the past II - Books

In one of the boxes, pulled out of storage, there were a bunch of books.  In my teens I was very much in to Battletech, and it all started with this book.

A chance purchase after school turned into an obsession.  Look at the price on that thing too.

Bloggers for Charity

There are a couple of bloggers in the UK who have decided that it is time to give something back.  They are harnessing the power of individuals to effect change.  The same power that makes Kickstarter work.  The same power that makes our societies function.  It's the power of many individuals doing a little bit to make something great happen.

Bloggers for Charity

Victorian Science Fiction Manufacturers

This page is for Victorian Science Fiction and Steamp Punk manufacturers.  As always, if I have missed someone, please drop me a line in the comments and I'll add them in.

In Her Majesty's Name III

The book has finally arrived.  I've been anxiously awaiting this since I put in the order last month.  It's a quick read.  Very good first impression of the rules, though the proof will be in the playing.

Treasures from the Past I - 6mm?

Yesterday I set the scene for today's post.  One of the treasures I found was a bunch of 6mm armor.  Back in the day, twenty five years ago now, my father and I played Twilight 2000.  This was the only game we played together, and it was very special to me because of that.

USMC LAV-25 with 6mm flame job.

Treasures from the past

Last weekend, or two weekends ago, or some time in the recent past; I was helping my folks empty out their storage unit.  There were two boxes of my stuff, treasures from my child hood.  These were things that I had wondered, vaguely, where they were over the last couple of years.  All of these finds helped me through many friendless hours as a teenager.

It looked nothing at all like this.  At all.

Over the next few days I'll be trotting out these treasures, one group at a time.  It's a strange feeling to be digging through my gaming toys from twenty five years ago.

Introduction
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

APC's

I backed the CMG Kickstarter for the expansion of their ZAS Mercs line.  The only problem was that I was already using the Bastion APC's for my Federation Marine Corps.  The ZAS are going to be Royal Rangers from the Principate, the third faction for my Gruntz armies.  This being the case, I needed some armored boxes to move troops around.  Happily, Brigade came out with some new models, and a sale, right around the same time.

Four Wombat APC's for my Royal Rangers.

April Accomplishments

As some of you will remember, March was an abject failure on the hobby front.  Happily, in April I turned that around.  I painted a ton of models, played a few games and, in general, just got back in to my hobby groove.

Praetorians!

Gruntz Battle Report - FMC vs Khanate strike force

We played half of another game of Gruntz last weekend.  The action was broken up by other considerations, brewing beer and making dinner, so we didn't get to finish the game.  This was my second game and The Traveller's first.

The table.

On line army builders

In my ongoing series on hobby resources this post will cover on-line army builders.  I'll start off by saying that I'm sure there's a bunch that I'm missing, so any and all comments to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

A Milestone

This month, for the first time ever, I've hit a milestone that I never thought I'd hit.  As of April I have painted more models than I have bought or assembled, for the year.

It says a lot about our hobby that some people will find this remarkable, because it took so long.  Others will find it remarkable because it actually happened.  The variety of personalities and priorities that fit within the "wargaming hobby" is one of the things that I love about it.

I like to game, first and foremost.  I'm a gamer.  All other things are secondary to that.  I also like to assemble models, minus the cleaning part.  I've assembled many armies for my friends over the years as well as the commission work I do for the local painting service from time to time.

The painting has always been my least favorite part.  I've thrown some paint at my Warhammer empire from time to time.  I have a few units painted.  I've got two painted armies for Lord of the Rings.  That's where I really started to paint.

Over the last couple of years I've come to appreciate my responsibility for the look of the game.  I've always liked painted models, but was ok with the game if they weren't.  Partly, this blog has changed my viewpoint.  When I post pictures of unpainted models I can see just how poorly they show.  It hurts my pride and makes me want to do better.

The same goes for terrain.  I have a lot of terrain, most of it unpainted.  It's another thing that has bothered me more the last year or two and that I'm working to change.

The point of all of this is that I'm not just thinking about changing my style, I'm actually doing it.  Gaming is still my priority but the painting is catching up.  I'm pretty happy about that.

Numidian Light Cavalry

Today I completed another unit for the Early Imperial Romans.  This is six Numidian light horse from Warlord Games.  Light cavalry has always been one of my favorite units.  The speed.  The hard hitting strikes on the flanks.  The fragility if you use them wrong.

All six of them.

Setting the Scene

Working through my blog roll tonight I found a treasure of a post by Sidney Roundwood.  I'm going to point you in his direction for two reasons.  Firstly, this post has some great ideas and even if you only use one or two, I think they'll improve your games.

Secondly, I want to be able to find it again, and now I have a permanent link.

With no further ado Being There, by Sidney Roundwood.

Gruntz Battle Report - Federation vs Caliphate

Sitrep:  Contact reported.  Infiltration Bn elements at location 49R27438574.  1st Plt, B Co, 2nd LAR with Mech attachements.  Movement to contact.  Destroy the enemy.  Hold the town.  The APC's will advance towards the last known location of the enemy.  Mechs are scouting ahead, will rendezvous at the objective.  No Air support available.  2nd and 3rd platoons at 60 minutes for relief.  Comms plan B7.

Light Armored Recon pushing the Infiltration Bn out of the village.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Saturday was the monthly Hail Caesar game.  The local shop was running a tournament so I hosted Jonathan at my place.  Our armies have both grown to the size where we can get some interesting tactical situations going.  It was both fun, and frustrating, and resulted in a staggering loss for Rome.

By the way, I recognize the anachronism of a Roman army with an emperor fighting against Carthage.  It is what it is, those are the armies we have.

Lots of maneuver, not many Romans left.

I didn't go to Salute (or Adepticon, or Reaper Con)

Anne, of Anne's Attic has started a new meme, or at least she's started one if it takes off.  She did not get to go to Salute, or any of the other big shows going on right now.  Her suggestion is that all of us in that situation tell everyone what we did do.

I've taken the liberty to expand it from just Salute to also cover Adepticon and Reaper Con, since they are both going on this weekend as well.

Roman army - Group shot

Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar yesterday, though that's a story for another day.  Knowing that the game was coming up, I've been trying, frantically, to get everything painted.  Jonathan has done a much better job than me of only bringing painted units to the table.  March's cock up put me behind but I came very close.  Both of our armies are coming along nicely, though HC will play better with a lot more models than we have.  Still, here's an army shot, showing everything that is done so far.

All that are painted.

In Her Majesty's Name II

Yesterday I posted on In Her Majesty's Name.  I was lamenting the fact that the US Marine adventuring company appeared to have been removed.  My plan was to source minis on my own and use the build your own rules to build the company I wanted.  Happily, one of the authors commented and, very gently, let me know that I was wrong in my assumptions and that the Marines are still in.

Naturally this made me even more excited for the release.

Society of Thule from North Star Military Figures.

In Her Majesty's Name

This is yet another set of skirmish rules, though these are Victorian Science Fiction.  There is a fair amount of buzz about this set.  Jonathan, of The Inevitable Spark, has been, oh so gently, pushing this game.  From what I've seen I'm interested and it's a low bar to entry.

The cover looks awesome.  Steam, zombies and carnage.

Eastern Auxiliary Archers

Today I completed another unit for the Romans.  We had a snow storm roll in and everything was shut down, so I had most of the day to paint.  This is a unit of eight archers for my Roman army.  They did strong work in their last fight, which was their first outing, so I have high hopes for them now that they are painted.

Auxiliary archers.  

Praetorians!

Making up for March's failure, I finished this regiment of 21 Praetorians in the last week.  One will go on the base with the Emperor.  Sixteen will be in the Cohort and four are extra.  I'm really pleased with how this unit came out.  They are my favorite so far in this army.

He's so bad ass he can't even be bothered to draw his sword.

Terrain in the Grand Manner

To me, terrain is one of the most critical aspects of a table top game.  Good rules, beautifully painted minis, they all fall flat if the table doesn't look good.  Here's a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.  This gentleman does it right, in my book.  This is his Breed's Hill set up.  There's not too much on the table, but this does not look like a table.  It looks like a battlefield.  Even better is this War of the Roses table.  It may be the best looking battlefield I've ever seen.  

Image from Grand Manner Web Site

March and April

March was a complete failure for my hobby.  I didn't play a game.  I didn't pick up a brush.  I didn't assemble so much as a single 15mm figure.  Nothing.  While I have valid reasons (vacation, new job) I am still feeling down about it.

My plan for April is ambitious, probably too much so, but I have to pump it up to get my mojo back.

March.  This says it all.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gray Company

The Haradrim have been playing pretty well the last few months.  I'm still thinking of changing up the army a bit, adding more units, but I have to finish painting more Romans first.

These archers engaged in a game long duel with the Rangers.  

Painting for February

I'm a little late getting these guys up but it just got nice enough to get them varnished.  Colorado, being the weather whore that it is, gave us a little bit of everything this week.  We had a blizzard last weekend.  I drove to work in white out conditions on Tuesday.  Today it was 70 degrees and perfect.

Of course the first thing I thought of was, "I can finally get some stuff primed!".  As soon as I got home I rushed out and primed about half of what was on my work bench.  It turned out that I was out of brown primer for the horses, thus only half.

Half of one Auxiliary Cohort.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Two weeks ago Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar.  Both of our armies are growing, starting to look like real armies.  We are also gaining an improved understanding of the rules, though only playing every few weeks is not really aiding in that.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cohorts, forming the left wing of the army.

Battle Report - Harad vs Corsairs

The pirates were coming again.  Nuradan knew how to beat this old enemy.  He had fought them often enough, after all.

The Corsairs approach.

Brigade Models Sale! 25% off

Brigade Models are having a 25% off sale.  (Bugger, I said that in the title too).  This is bigger than most any sale in our little industry, and it is this weekend only.  They only announced it on their blog, so I'll throw this up in case you missed it there.

LotR Rules for EIR Romans

I've been working on a list to play skirmish games with my Early Imperial Romans.  I play LotR/Hobbit, so that seemed like a natural fit.

Round, Lord of the Rings style bases.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor

Last Thursday night was club night down at Collectormania.  Russ was the only other person there so it made the line up easy.  He brought his Gondor army, with some new models that he wanted to try out.  I had my tried and true Haradrim, who are about to undergo a major revision.

The battle lines meet.

Commission work - Necrons

I do some sub-contracting from time to time.  One of the guys down at the shop has a painting service.  He has tried everything to stay ahead, raising prices, refusing requests, he's still booked to the eyes.  When he gets behind he throws assembly work my way.

The whole army. 

Year of Rules (continued)

The year of rules is over.  It was, officially, 2012.  Having said that, I'm still exploring some new ones and two that I've got my heart set on were recently on sale.

I'm looking forward to both sets of these, as much as I've enjoyed Hail Caesar.

Battle Report - Harad vs Dwarfs

A week ago my friend Keith, aka "the Hobbit", was in town and had some, very rare, time to play.  Keith is the one who introduced us all to the Lord of the Rings SBG.  Six of us went over to Rob K.'s house where he hosted with tables, snacks and pizza.

The battle, several turns in.  I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures.

Painted Romans - January goal

January is over and I managed to meet my goal of painting twenty figures.  Will miracles never cease?

Veteran Command

Warhammer Wood Elves

Here are the pictures of the Wood Elf army I recently received as a gift/bequest.  There is not a lot to it, and no paint on it at all.  This leaves me with questions and opportunities.  For a couple of reasons, it's very important to get this army just right.

The full army.

Manufacturer Links - 28mm Early Imperial Romans

Continuing my pages with manufacturer links, this one is all of the folks who make Early Imperial Romans.  As always, if you know of some that I missed, please leave me a comment and I will add them in.

A late Christmas gift

The other day my friend asked me to come over after work.  I always make time for this particular friend, and so headed straight there.  When I arrived he said that he had my Christmas present for me.  On his kitchen table was his Warhammer Chaos army.

That's five units of Chaos warriors and four units of Marauders.  

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage II

Today was another game of Hail Caesar.  Jonathan and I have both added to our armies, though he has actually painted his units.  As usual we met down at Collectormania, arriving just in time to get a table.  The place was packed today.  We had a fair amount of interest with quite a few people stopping by to see what we were playing.  This game went much more smoothly that our last one.  We did not bother with points, just using the special rules from the army lists and bringing whatever we had ready.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor

I've now played my first game of the year.  It wasn't the 1st, but pretty close.  I met Russ down at Collectormania and we took the new Hobbit rules for a spin.  We are both very familiar with the LotR rules but we still had to flip through the book a fair amount.  It was a fun game, only slightly marred by my loss.

Faramir and his Osgiliath veterans. 

My 2012 Ouptut - For posterity's sake

These are my Assembled/Painted numbers for 2012.  I'll be keeping them here, just so I can compare, year on year.  Using Curt's point system for the Analogue Painting Challenge this is 934 points painted.  That's for a whole year, mind you.  Some of his contestants are closing on that after a couple of weeks.  I guess I'll need to try a lot harder this year.

Painted models just look so much better, I'm not sure why it's so hard to get motivated to paint them.

2012 In Review and 2013 Plans

How's that for an inspiring title.  I love seeing what everyone else plans for the year, and how last year's plans panned out (or more often did not).  Since a large part of my keeping this blog is to keep track of my hobby, I also look forward to seeing what the last year held for me.

This was the biggest accomplishment of the year.

Final assembly

That's it.  I'm calling it a year.  No more hobby will happen before the 1st.  I accomplished most of what I was aiming for the last few days though.  The pile waiting for priming has grown.

Auxiliary Command from Warlord.  Very nice models.

Fanticide minis

I received my Fanticide Kickstarter rewards awhile back.  It was definitely good value for my money.  The book is beautiful.  The rules are interesting and fun.  The ability to build your own warbands is brilliant and the models are characterful and well made.

Flying monkeys from the Kingdom of Odd.  Awesome!

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage

A month ago (I know, I'm a slacker), Jonathan and I played our first game of Hail Caesar.  We've been working up to this for about seven months, so it was much anticipated and long over due.  We each brought three units, what we had assembled and ready to go.  We did not play with any mods, or terrain on the table, aiming simply to figure out the rules.  There was a lot of flipping through the book.

The Carthaginians form a line.

End of year frenzy

I've been out of action for the last two months.  The blog's been quiet because I have not done anything hobby-wise.  My shoulder is starting to feel better, at the same time that I have a week off of work.  I'm trying to get a whole bunch assembled so that if the weather gets nice enough, I can get it primed.  I have a fair bit primed already, but most of it is not for any current project; rather they are artifacts of past attempts to paint armies.

Several of my kickstarters have come home to roost in the last two weeks.  First through the door was Fanticide.  This was the rules, cards and a Liberi war band, as well as a sample pack and the unicorn.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas Everyone!  I hope that you are all with family, friends or associates of your choice and that you all get some gaming goodness as well as the recharge of the soul that a great Christmas can bring.

Five Worthy Blogs

I have been given the Liebster Award by Jonathan over at The Inevitable Spark.  So Thank You Jonathan.  This is a meme, started I know not where, that has been making the rounds the last few weeks.

This award is a way for our community to share, by picking five of your favorite blogs to pass the award to.  I find it a little ironic that I received it after not really managing any hobby for a month, but I'm grateful.

In the end this is nothing more than a chance for us to share some of the blogs we enjoy.  That's a worthwhile goal and well worth the effort.

The five blogs I'm going to showcase below are the ones that I look forward to reading the most.  Some that I might have chosen have already received this, very, prestigious award.  If you are not one of these five, know that every blog on my blog roll is there because I consider reading it worth my time and I gain something I value from it.

First up is Rear Guard Action.  J. de Jong is all about board games.  I have quite a collection of board games, but nothing like him.  This is a part of my hobby that was critical during my formative years, but that I don't get to spend much time on these days.  This blog has been helping me to get back in touch with the world of board gaming.

Tim K. Actually wrote this.  I've actually played games with him.  That's pretty awesome.

Next up is Cursed Treasures by Tim Kulinski.  I've met Tim a few times; played several games of Lord of the Rings against him, one of which is even covered on this blog, back in the mists of time.  Tim is the author of Legends of the High Seas.  His blog is an eclectic blend of genres, along with a fair amount of disenchantment with a certain company that used to give him joy.  I'm in touch with that emotion, so this blog resonates with me on several levels.

Roundwood's World is a blog by the very talented Sidney Roundwood.  While there are a lot of interesting posts on this gem of a blog I'll sum it all up in one word; TERRAIN.  Sidney's terrain boards have inspired me.  I'm just working up the courage to get started on some of my own, though the step into WWI gaming will have to wait.  Incidentally, I can't believe I'm the first one to put him up.

The next blog is Analogue Hobbies.  This one just blows me away.  The WWI in grey scale is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life.  The sheer insanity of it is an inspiration.  Curt also posts up a periodic series of scenarios, which we should all appreciate, as gamers.

The final blog is The British Army at Waterloo.  Following my theme, which seems to revolve around a certain level of insanity, even for we hobbyists, this blog is documenting the effort to collect and paint the British army at Waterloo at 1-1.  I find the concept beyond imagining.  I'm not certain I could even contemplate such a project, but it does make me feel a little bit saner.

As I said above, I enjoy and value each blog in my blog roll, but each of these is something different and unique, for either personal reasons or just the content of the blog.

I hope you all check them out and enjoy them as much as I do.

Bring the Pain

I finally had my follow up appointment this week.  I won't bore you with details, but it turned out they had to rebuild the entire front of my shoulder.  The good news is that it should be good as new, in about three months.  The bad news is that It's going to take awhile to get better; about three months.  I'm hoping to be able to hold a paintbrush long before then, but right now I guess I'll be reading rules and surfing blogs.

When the hobby hurts

I haven't posted much this month.  It's really come down to health issues.  My shoulder has been bothering me for years but has gotten really bad in the last few months.  I finally had surgery last week.  What does all of this have to do with anything?

Sometimes the hobby hurts.  Physically hurts.  For the last month, and especially, the last week, almost all hobby activity has been painful to perform.  I can game, which may be part of why I'm so excited about X-Wing right now.  I can't hold a brush, or a file.  I can't hold two little pieces of plastic together while the glue sets.  Most of the hobby is outside my reach, both figuratively and literally.

I spent a couple of days staring forlornly at the models on my desk.  There's so much to do and I'm not accomplishing any of it.  Then I started to consider how I would adjust if my temporary disability were permanent.  What could I do to allow me to paint and assemble models?  How would my collecting change if everything became harder?  This was purely an exercise in "what if" since I am expecting to recover fully.  It was really something to keep my mind occupied while I sat here and drooled on myself.

One result of all of this thought is a new found appreciation for all that I take for granted.  It's good to have things taken away from us sometimes; it helps us realize what we have and what we value.  The prospect of re-gaining full use of my right arm is something that fills me with great pleasure, above and beyond the hope of living without pain.  I definitely find that I am a person who wants what they can't have.  I'm surprised at the sense of loss I feel right now.

I am obsessive about miniatures and gaming.  I think about them way more than I should.  They have helped to keep me sane through many military deployments.  I need to keep my brain actively engaged.  I haven't watched TV in years and have a hard time sitting through a movie.  Miniatures are the balm that soothes the savage beast, so to speak.

I'm going to wrap it up here, both because I'm sure this is rambling (stupid pain killers) and because typing hurts too.  But I do have a question.  What disabilities do you guys suffer from and how do you compensate? It could be as simple as failing eyesight or as difficult as a certain sculptor's missing hand.  I'd be fascinated to hear all about it.  Or are we all insufferably healthy?

Battle Report - Isengard vs Gray Company

I am planning on running a campaign for the club come January. In preparation I've come up with 21 new scenarios.  A couple are based on some from the book but most are new, and therefore in need of testing.  A couple of weeks ago Tony and Jonathan kindly agreed to help me test one out.

The flanking force arrives