Downsizing

Like any going concern in this economy I've downsized my collection quite a bit this year. Partly for economic reasons and partly for the space/time continuum of an aging gamer. Gone are about 50 board games, both war games and Euro games. Board Game Geek was a great venue for the board game sales. Gone are 90% of my WW2 15mm figures, sold off mostly to TFL buddies in the states. Gone are the WW2 1/2400 naval models. Gone are the WW1 plane models. Gone are 50% of the WW2 plane models along with the Check your Six rules and modules. The one surprise was that not one prospective buyer popped up for my mass of 28mm ancients.

 Saved for future use were the 28mm AWI and 28mm ECW figures. I've actually got a local artist who wants to learn how to paint figures and I'm giving her a crack with my AWI figures. Pictures when she has made a little progress. Enough for now, next time a story about my current project and the wreck of the USS Constitution.

Updates (about time!)

Well, loads has changed in the 10 months since my last post. Most notably I've been cleaning house, selling off loads of figures to Lard buddies and others. I haven't use eBay this time but the Surplus Wargames yahoo group and a short notice on the Too Fat Lardies yahoo group too. Gone are the majority of my 15mm WW2 figures, gone are the 1/2400 WW2 GHQ ships, gone are both the 15mm and 20mm Vietnam figures and terrain and gone are other smaller groups of figures. I still have more to list but the mailing and packaging got to be too much. Another big change in my gaming has been a move to board games, which is where I started back in JHS.
ASL is my new favorite and I get in maybe 2-3 games a month if lucky and have a monster game set up at home since June. More to come as I've criticized a good friend for not keeping up her blog and now have to follow my own advice.

2010 - A New Year's Project List (Part 1 of 2)

In the past week I'm seeing more and more bloggers with end of year and New Years lists so I thought I'd join the club. As for my best of list I'm keeping it short and sweet and listing not only new things but the best of what I've enjoyed most, discovered or rediscovered this year.

1) The Too Fat Lardies Yahoo forum. A witty, rambling roundtable of information and tomfoolery from wargame fans around the world, the only ingredient missing which would make this the best site online is hearing the accents of all involve. A bonus read if you actually own a set of their rules.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Toofatlardies/

2) The Meeples and Miniatures podcast. And here you actually hear the accents! Coverage of all types of miniature and board gaming, Neil really covers the gamut in a delightful way. His weekly video reviews are a joy to watch. New for me this year.

http://meeples.wordpress.com/

3) The Perry Brothers figures. I've purchased figures from Perry on and off over the years, mainly 40mm Nappies but this year I dove into their 28mm AWI line and I'm dumb struck by the quality of casting, sculpting and posing in this range. Building up forces to do AWI with the supplement and scenarios from the TFL specials. Better looking figures than I've seen in Juggs magazine.

http://www.perry-miniatures.com/

4) The 2 Half Squads Podcast. What could be better than 2 guys sitting around drinking beer and scotch talking about the best board war game ever designed. Dedicated to Advanced Squad Leader and it's continuing expansions they discuss rules, tactics and the joy and despair of the dice rolling life.

http://www.the2halfsquads.com/

Next time I'll try and get my house in order and lay out a plan for purchasing, painting and playing games for 2010.

Sirens of lead

Once again, part way into a new project it's tossed to the roadside for a shinier, newer interest. It seems a word, a reference, a link within a forum or on TMP will zombie like steer me off course. Oh the sirens of lead men call me constantly! Within the past four months I've reorganized, rebased, purchased figures, dabbled with painting, bought books for research, and generally shuffle around both my painting area and my gaming table the following bit and pieces.
28mm ECW figures for a skirmish play test rule set from TFL
10mm ancients for Impetus (painting and rebasing)
28mm ancients for Impetus (painting and rebasing - purchased more figs)
28mm US Airborne for M&B WW2 (finishing out a weapons platoon - Actually got this finished)
28mm Dark Age figures for a skirmish rule set rumor heard on the TFL forum
36mm German WW2 figures purchased as a lark
28mm AWI Perry figures for Sharp Practice (this after finally reading "This Land Divided" a supplement for SP)
Advanced Squad Leader - pulled out my old board games and set up not one, but 3 different scenarios to relearn the rules for this monster from my past.
Rejoined my board game buddies at the local game store for a Combat Commander campaign game every other Sunday.
..and finally, Ambush Alley. I'd purchased a big handful of 20mm modern US and insurgents for this game and as usual started basing and laying down a base coat of paint about 6 months ago and put them away for something newer. Now I find an opponent living just 1/2 hour away and have promised to meet up after Christmas. Can't let my fickle nature distract me from AA till I have at least 40-50 figures finished.
Pictures to follow this weekend of what I have finished, promise.

Mud and Blood WW2 Playtest

I finally had a chance to try out the playtest version of the Too Fat Lardies rules "Through the Mud and Blood" as adapted for the Second World War. Originally a WW1 rules set, the mechanics were felt to be an improvement over their TW&T platoon level rules.Quite a good feel at first try and looking forward to our second game after the holidays. Have to paint up another squad or two for each side to bring it up to 2 platoons per side and see what happens. I'm really pleased with the quality (both production and mechanics) of the latest rules coming out of Lard Island. The Winter special is due to be released today with over 100 pages of scenarios and articles for their rule sets "Merry Christmas" to me!

28MM Airborne Figures

My 28mm American Airborne along with the Fallschrimjaeger opponents for the TFL game "Troops, Weapons and Tactics"

Another switch in direction

Last month, after posting the pictures of my current projects it suddenly dawned on me I have a Demo game coming up real quick. I'm running Sharp Practice at Conquest in Santa Clara California on Labor Day weekend. I did have some figures purchased last winter which I never got around to painting for my spring demo in Sacrament for lack of time. To spice up the scenarios I've added some French Hussars, the 10th Regt. actually along with another Big Man.

Pictured to the right is the group of 8 Hussars and Big Man along with a 28mm figure so you can get the scale of the 40mm Perry's and Sash and Saber figures. Still an hour or two of detailing on the figures to do and then the base detail.
I'm going to make an effort to add the 3 remaining horsemen before Labor Day and make it a 10 figure group with trumpeter and Officer.

I'm really enjoying painting up these bigger figures and intend to throw another group of British infantry on the painting table to balance out my forces for the next gaming session after the Con.

After that the fall/winter will find me back on the Mud and Blood WW1 figures to demo in March 2010.

Oh....I've forgotten completely about the ECW figures for either the skirmish rules or the larger scale rules the TFL group is working on.

Ta