Merry Xmas!

Hello again,

I'm still looking at those photos of the previous 40K game... I think I will need the son to help me with the captions however.

I got some painting done; detail work on the Fire Warriors and Sniper Drones, and I finally glued together the last Sniper Drone controller. I just have two more Gun Drones to assemble before the entire force is up.

As the Tau are nearing completion, I am looking more and more at my Renaissance project. The rules are still the stumbling point, and along with that is the basing system. I am waffling back and forth about either single 20mm squares (Warhammer standard) or 60mm x 20mm stands (DBx standard). Single-figure stands will probably be the way, especially if I can find a good set of skirmish rules for the period. The single-figure stands can be used for the other multi-figure-base rules with slight modification. I will need to make unit trays for that, however; my son is making trays for his WH dwarves out of sheet plastic. I'm not certain how pikes work in a skirmish situation, but...


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Gaming again

Howdy,

Sorry for such a delay between posts. The wind-up for the wedding took a bit out of me...

I have finally managed to have a game, my first in quite a while. I played against my son in 40K, my Tau vs. his Black Templars. It was all over by the end of turn 4, but my son was a bit distressed in the pile of dead Marines my Tau left on the field. I have pics of the game that I will post soon.

Also, I dropped my son off at the GW Battle Bunker last Saturday for 'Tanksgiving', an all-vehicle free-for-all. He was quite happy with the outcome, having scored 12 kills and having 7 of 9 vehicles left by the end of the game. He walked away with a nice piece of terrain (Ork watchtower) and a Leman Russ model that he happily converted into a looted Leman Russ for his Ork force. I have pics of that also.

Not a bad holiday week-end!!


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Post-Enfilade part 4

Here is some more info about Ian Croxall's marvelous WSS games at Enfilade:

Blenheim 2004

Pics and maps of the first of these mega-games at Enfilade in 2004 (and replayed at Enfilade 2005 I believe).


Ramilles 2006

More pics and maps for the most recent battle.

Please note: by the looks of it, Ian is planning a Malplaquet game for 2008!


And a link for Enfilade


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The plan

I think that I have finally come up with a plan for my gaming habit. As you might know, the budget has been shut down for the near future, but that is not going to stop me from trying to make some sense out of my desires for tabletop gaming. So, here is what I have come up with so far:

1. Finish off the Tau - painting only, no purchases.

2. Warlord - kind of on hold for now; I have plenty to assemble and paint, but I need to get my soon-to-be wife more involved (yes, she wants to do this project together).

3. Renaissance - early 16th century Italian wars. This one will be done with 28mm figures, singly mounted as per Warhammer Ancients. This will allow me to also play against my son and his Warhammer fantasy army.

4. Now for the hard part. I have all sorts of ideas for gaming after the above, but the scale for the figures is not set down yet. I am going to buy small amounts of figures in several different scales: 6mm; 10mm; 1/72 (among others). Then I will see how it goes from there. Ease of painting, figure availability, storage, etc. will be factored in. I do want to set ONE scale for the rest of my projects.

Now I just need to keep digging for info on figures, rules, terrain, etc. until the budget goes into the black again...


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Now I've gone and done it!

When I started this blog, I promised my significant other that I would keep it to the topic of games. But, this entry is not because something important is about to happen...




Yep, we're getting married!

It is going to be a simple ceremony on November 10.


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LibraryThing

I heard about an interesting web site from the fellows at The Miniatures Page (also an interesting site!):


LibraryThing



This site allows you to catalog the books in your library, and you can see the contents of other people's libraries. Reviews and ratings can be written by the users, and there are groups that you can form or join to discuss aspects of book reading/collecting/writing/etc. There is a wargamer group, with a dozen or so members. I find it interesting to see what the most common books are in the groups!

LibraryThing is free, with a limit of 200 entries. Yearly or lifetime subscriptions are offered for those with larger collections.

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Post Enfilade part 3

Some more long-overdue pics from this year's Enfilade:



A Starship Troopers game



The famous Battle on the Ice DBA game, Lake Peipus 1410, complete with Zamboni and Stanley Cup measuring aids! This is one of Paul Hannah's many marvelous 15mm DBA settings.




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For the time being...

My gaming budget has been closed for the near future. We are saving all of the coin we can; hopefully we will be moving in the early part of 2007.

Of course, I have plenty of minis to paint! My son's friend, suddenly realising that Ultramarines are better than Tau, gave me one of his Fire Warrior squads, and a squad of Sniper Drones. My Tau army is definitely complete; I just need to paint it all...

During this enforced time off, I will be scheming and plotting for a new plan of projects for the future. We are still going to work on armies for Reaper's Warlord game - Reptus and Elves. I am still planning on a 28mm Italian Wars Renaissance project. And I am seriously thinking about a 10mm Punic Wars project.

The key to all of these historical projects is a decent set of rules. It does not need to be the same rules for Punic and Renaissance; it just needs to be one I'm comfortable with using at home and at conventions.

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Not done yet...

I've been away for a while! Hopefully, I can get to some real posting in the near future... my monitor has been giving me problems.


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Post-Enfilade part 2

Ramilles again...





These pics were taken at the lunch-time break. By this time the action was pretty hot along the length of the battlefield. Never did find out the outcome...


Also, a shot of one of the Roman Seas scenarios, presented by Eric Hotz:


Roman Seas won the Best of Show award for Enfilade '06


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Post-Enfilade part 1

We had a great time at Enfilade this year. It was a long day, having awoken at 0300 Saturday, driving down to the hotel, gaming all day, and making it back home at 0200 Sunday!

Here is a couple of pics of the huge Ramilles game, run by Ian Croxall with 28mm minis:







I am not too familiar with this battle... these pics are from near the center of the table at the start of the battle. The tables (around 30' long) were in a dog-leg shape, and these pics are from the bend in the map.


More later...


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Enfilade

Today is the start of Enfilade, the local minis convention. We (Feawin, Taeklonn, and myself) will be down there tomorrow. I will take the camera and get some shots. I am hoping to get some pics of the huge Ramilles and Little Big Horn games, but I am also hoping that I'll be too busy playing other games...


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Update

Well, those Orks escaped the attention of my camera... I will catch them though, soon.

It is the start of a three-day week-end here, so I might make some progress on these Tau. I'm planning to build the sniper drones, and my Crisis-suited commander, by Tuesday. Yes, yes, I'll post some pics!

Also, I was able to put some paint on those tank traps, and I will take some pics of those.

You might want to take a peek at Ben's blog:

http://damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead.blogspot.com/


(sorry 'bout that - for some reason I'm having a problem with Blogger...)

Some great pics of Ultramarines!



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A little bit of terrain...

I'm starting a quick little project for the tabletop.

Last week at work, we received a new scanner. Now, normally I don't get to play with the new stuff at work, but when I saw the packaging I was mollified, since it had some 'unusual' shapes. After a couple of days, the packaging still had not been tossed out, so I took advantage of the situation and broke off some useful bits from the packaging.









(Stealth suit added for scale)

I sanded the bases of the 'teeth' and the sides also, and glued them down to .060" styrene sheet. Once the glue is dry (I used Elmer's Wood Glue, which takes quite a while to dry, but should be stronger than white glue) I'll add some spackle to help pretty up the base, and go from there.





Later this week-end, I hope to take some pics of No. 2 Son's 40K figures...


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Tau sniper drones part 1

Here is a look at the box...




















and the contents...
















I was a bit surprised by the clam-shell packaging. Maybe it has just been so long since I had bought some new GW merchandise, but I was expecting the styrofoam dividers. Oh well; clam-shells are certainly cleaner and probably less expensive. But I will miss the ability to make ruins from the packaging...

Here is a pic of something I didn't want to find:


















That is going to take some time to clean up, and it is right on some of the engraved detail of the shoulder pad.

(NOTE: That is not a rant against GW. When I start my historical projects, I will be just as quick to point out their flaws as well.)



Here is the rail rifle on the sniper drones:













Beautifully cast, as are the antennas and the drone controller...




































This will be a fun addition to my Tau force; hopefully I will get it assembled and painted before the end of the year!!


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Well, that's not surprising...

On Monday Blogger has having fits, and the post I thought was lost has actually turned up... heheheh


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Making progress

Howdy,

Lots of stuff happening...

Over at TMP several new blogs have started up, and they are looking good so far. Here are their links:

http://wargamerondeckca.blogspot.com/

http://chonk34.blogspot.com/

http://anearthing.blogspot.com/


I'm also working on finishing off the Tau force. I have purchased what may be the last two items for the force - the new Sniper Drone box and the new Commander crisis suit. Hopefully I will take some work-in-progress pics of these cool new items as I progress them from box to completion. The drones are getting painted up - sloooowly, and I have contracted with No. 2 Son to finish my Fire Warriors and Kroot.

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I'm back

Well, I wasn't really gone but just busy...

More and more people are popping up with interesting blogs. Here are a couple from fellow TMP users:

http://anearthing.blogspot.com/

http://wargamerondeckca.blogspot.com/

http://chonk34.blogspot.com/


I also have made some purchases for my Tau force - Sniper drones and the new Crisis suit Commander. I will post some pics in the near future.


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... working...

I have dusted off the camera... here is a pic of my Tau stealth suits and a pic of the current condition of my work table

And, I forgot to post the link to http://www.renaissancewargamesociety.com

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Yeah yeah yeah

Greetings,

Some progress has actually been made here! The process of selling off my older minis has commenced, with my 1/600 ironclads being the first. I greatly enjoyed using these minis, but I had not used them in 3 years. It is my humble opinion that the buyer got a great deal, and I got some money to direct into other projects - a renewal of my RWS (Renaissance Wargame Society) membership and my first installment on my World of Warcraft subscription.

Yes, we have switched over to WoW from Everquest2. My girlfriend was becoming increasingly frustrated with the game, and the enjoyment was gone. So we fled, and we are glad. WoW is a pleasure to play, and the background music is great! I know that is a strange bonus but it does make a difference... even my kids have commented favorably on that aspect.

We have characters on these realms: Thorium Brotherhood and Feathermoon.


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Hmmmm...

Well, yesterday I posted a rundown on my current 'pewter' situation - and it seems to have vanished! So, a brief recap...

1. Still working on the Tau, with No. 2 Son painting the Kroot for me
2. Reptus on hold for now
3. Can't decide on a historical project
4. Lacking the funding for any project at the moment


Sigh

More later, pictures even

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