30 July 2008

Distractions...

With the progress I have made with the Empire and Tékumel minis I have, I just can not keep other genres out of my mind.

I had a brief thought about micro-armour recently. Back 25 years ago, I was heavily involved with my local (as in Spokane WA) group's mini wars, and they played micro-armour. They did have a unique approach - collection campaigns. This entailed totaling up everything in your collection, and having a go at a campaign. Some of the guys had very substantial collections, and talk of starting another campaign signaled a round of purchases, hopefully to arrive before the campaign start date! Unfortunately, these campaigns usually did not last long; after a brief surge of interest, the logistics of the game weighed the 'gaming' part down, and the 'accounting' part rose to snuff the fun out. I never had much of a collection, but I always had some interesting stuff, like WW2 Russian cavalry or horse-drawn artillery... I do not remember what happened to my small micro-armour collection.

I don't think I would have fun painting or playing with micro-armour today (unless somebody else organized a game complete with minis, rules, terrain, etc). Despite some great techniques shown at the GHQ forums, I'm not sure I could keep any interest.

I like to keep thinking about Ancients in 28mm, but two items hinder this. One is the actual period to collect. I could just as easily play games with Egyptians vs. Hittites, Punic War battles, or Caesar's battles in Gaul as I could play with my current projects. It might not be a bad idea to keep this historical project's basing system as close to the Empire/Tékumel system as possible, just to simplify purchases and to, perhaps, indulge in a cross-genre game or three. My budget is the second hindrance - much progress in the other projects must be made first before diverting money into this. I'll find a way, just not any time soon...


Oh yeah, just in case anybody is interested, here is a shot of my work table:



It is a bit of a mess, but not so cluttered as times in the past.


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6 comments:

  1. I have to admit I'm too easily distracted into other periods. My wife is out of town for the next few days and so I'm going to attempt to determine what parts of my collections I will keep. So far it's:
    FoW Desert Rats
    FoW Germans (Stalingrad)
    FoW Germans - DAK
    FoW US Paras
    FoW Fallschirmjaeger
    28mm SOTR and Regular WW2 Germans, Russinas, Brits, US
    15 mm Napoleonics
    28 mm El Cid Moors and Christians, Celts, EIR (blast Warlord and Wargames Factory)
    15mm ACW
    28mm Old West
    WHFB... maybe

    arrgghhh....

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  2. your work station is too clean man. Where are all the paint splatters and spray? Where's the stain where you knocked over the water pot? - Oh no wait that's my desk!!

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  3. Hi Keith, welcome to blogging saw your post on the OSW yahoo group, and I enjoyed your book. Good luck with the images

    Will

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  4. The "clutter" reminds me of my own work space . . . maybe it is universal with all of us.

    If you are thinking about Ancients, you might take a look at Basic Impetus . . . it is new and free (along with almost 200 army lists) and looks like fun:

    http://www.dadiepiombo.com/basic2.html


    -- Jeff

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  5. Ah yes... Spaghetti Ancients starring Clintus Eastwoodicus....

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  6. Distractions? Nah, never have 'em.

    Now that that delusion has cleared, I can say that I too suffer from too many projects and too many ideas. I am also at that point where budget of both time and money is being taxed and I am having to decide on what to finish.

    I do like to check in to see how things are coming along, so do keep things coming.

    -Eli

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