Forward!

[William Jones]

After an absolute, screeching halt on all wargaming activity for the past forty some months, and the theft of 95% or more of my minis and ancillary ‘stuff’ this summer, I’ve made the first move back into gaming.

I announce with pride on a little tin trumpet, that I have cleaned and primed three North Korean mortar teams, and eighteen ChiCom volunteers, ca. early 1951.  The castings are all QRF.  Decent sculpts with lots of character and easy to clean, so doing more is not too daunting.  The net twenty seven castings ain’t much for human wave type games, but it is the first step in getting back to gaming in years.  They can steal my minis but they can’t steal my hobby.

Next up, Normans!  A project put off for almost three decades.

[Mike]

Ye gads, what happened?

[kyoteblue]

Wowzer !!!

[Paul]

95% stolen! The horror! Good for you that you are back in action.

Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!

[William Jones]

Mike wrote:

Ye gads, what happened?

The hiatus or the theft?

The hiatus was due to starting up a retail business that took all my time and energy and which I ultimately sold.

The theft occurred while moving from one place to another in stages, and while the old place was unattended someone backed a truck up and basically eviscerated the house of its contents.  They got about 11 tubs worth of minis and terrain stuff and so on.   I had already removed a few boxes and all of my paints, so that is where I have an odd mashup of orcs, Korean War, AK47 and Normans.  Otherwise they took everything from my desk with papers, my painting bench, family paintings and all the way down to the flag that was on my father’s casket.  Effectively they cleaned me out.

On the up side, I didn’t know what to do with all the stuff I had.  That isn’t a problem anymore.

In getting back into gaming I have an interesting position now of decades of experience and exposure, but not as much free time and unwilling to spend the money to replace what I had.  The issue now is to choose my shots carefully.  What scale?  What rules?  What will actually be painted and hit the table top?  How much of my time, energy and money will I allocate to gaming?

In some important ways this is a good thing, because prior to this my stuff owned me.   You can have so much it paralyzes you, and it had reached that point.  That doesn’t make me any more conciliatory, but it is the best way to look at it.

[kyoteblue]

I am so sorry to hear this, William. But if I had to start over again….I would go 6mm…..yeah I know. I couldn’t paint it now that my eyes are old..but…..It would be cheap and easy to store.

[Piyan Glupak]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.  It must have been awful.  It sounds as if the retail business was not a bed of roses, either.

If I was starting again, I think that I would concentrate on one figure size, not necessarily going over old ground and replacing lost armies.  I personally would go for either 6mm or 15mm, but that is because I like those figure sizes and they are convenient for me – others are likely to have different preferences.

[Steve Johnson]

“The issue now is to choose my shots carefully.  What scale?  What rules?  What will actually be painted and hit the table top?  How much of my time, energy and money will I allocate to gaming?”

First of that’s awful to have had a load of your stuff stolen. But at least your words above show that you are taking a very sensible route back into the hobby. I’ve downsized a lot over the past few years due to many of the points you have raised. I’m a lot happier for it and still need to shift some more stuff.

[irishserb]

Congrats on your return.  And sorry to read of the misfortune, but it sounds like you have a very healthy approach to it.  Interesting position to be in, best of luck in your efforts.  Also, please share pix if you can.

[William Jones]

Thanks, guys.  At the end of the day though, all that is left is to decide whether to mope about it or cope with it, as a form of fiat moksha.  Getting cut back to this extent does wonders to focus the mind, so that is what I am doing and why I am bouncing ideas off of some of you here.  Meanwhile, I’ve done the salvage, set those things in order, and am pressing on with more enthusiasm than I’ve had in years.

And with that, there is nothing more to say about the past.

[Author]

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