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tl;dr at the bottom…
Well it’s been around 4 months since I last posted here and hardly a dice has been rolled in all that time!
My mental health had slipped and between bed rotting and manic days I honestly felt that I was not adding anything but inane ‘likes’ rather than getting on with my part of this great hobby.
So (in true YouTube tradition) what has happened and where does this rambling thread go for here???
- I’ve managed to clear out a fair bit of the 28mm figures – not a great feeling to bin / give away / sell the dreams and aspirations but I got some pleasure from knowing the recipients wanted them and hopefully will make more use of them than I.
- I’ve read a fair few books and can highly recommend the Patrick Stewart autobiography and Micheal Scott 6 part work entitled Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Though aimed at younger readers, John Flanagan’s Rangers and Botherband books are a great switch off and full of ideas suitable for RPGs set amongst early English feudal lands mixed with Vikings. If factual books are more your thing, then No Way Out by Major Adam Jowett is a frighteningly addictive description of 21 days of war in Afghanistan. When I started it, I got so hooked that I forced myself to put this down after 178 pages when I noticed it was 5AM!!!
- Sue very kindly bought me a ‘bit’ of Lego for Easter – it’s taken a fair number of sittings (I could only concentrate for short periods) but I completed the little flying machine from the new Dune films (both of which we have enjoyed watching together and cannot wait for part 3):
- Cleared out most of the servers I had here. I have had 4 (physical) servers doing bits around the house and internet (across multiple apps) and decided that I honestly did not need these (or the 6TB of old data from my past) so a fair bit of work later I am down to the media server and a tiny network server. At the same time I cleared out a massive number of part completed microcontroller projects, archived over 140K photo files (yes 140,000+) and while going through all this data I managed to find over 1700 files for various rules (PDF / Zip / JPGs etc) and my old blog (mainly 15mm sci-fi) archives but no pictures (thanks Google – your old Blogger backup / extract routine was crap as you could not get the pics back with the referenced name) but dare not resurrect that and not sure I have the energy (or urge) to start again.
- I tried the local plastic model group (IPMS) – nice folk but way beyond my skill and interest level (discussions on the version of the artwork on the box and differences in castings as kits moved between manufacturers left me cold). I’m not convinced some were “happy” that the models I planned building were literally the cheapest I could buy on eBay rather than have a theme / plan.
- I’ve tried Facebook again as the OHW group is only here – not sure about long term but its better than it was though filtering the ‘noise’ is hard and joining / leaving ‘closed’ groups to find out what they are like is getting annoying.
- I purchased a couple of 3D printed ruined buildings for the 15mm fantasy figures and managed to get one painted in the last couple of weeks. The black paint refuses to stick well and can chip so need to address this – odd as it’s a GW pot (admittedly a couple of years old) and my normal Halfords undercoat. I think it’s the paint – it’s very thick and nothing else is reacting like this on the model. I’m happy it’s not uncured resin – it was washed / does not feel sticky and the undercoat had over a week to dry in the area giving me an issue (chimney block shows a minor white spot again). Maybe it’s something off my hands??? Very odd but the result (via a poor camera export at 01:45) is:
The big one is I’ve decided to retire and spent a long time sorting out some of the work / personal pension funds to cover the bills till the state pension is here 🙂 Took a lot of heartache / soul searching but I just could not work out what I wanted to do as IT holds zero attraction now.
As for my on-going hobby, I’ll be honest and say future wise it has yet to be written:
Ogre is a bit of a bug bear – it’s a way bigger project than I feel up to biting at this time and maybe buying into the 3D version all the years ago was not a good idea (despite my love for the background). I need to dedicate serious time to this somehow (no – unpainted is not an option). Best I can come up with is I’ll start with a small force and try to create a version of the OHW WW2 rules for Sci-Fi or maybe just a smaller Ogre vs a few units under the standard rules… For now though most of it’s parked under the bed (better than the roof but not a good as the shelves) and a small selection is in my painting draw.
My mind took the OHW block game down a stupid rabbit hole looking at lots of different type of figures (ancients to WW2) in different scales (2mm to 15s) to replace the blocks with a more traditional looking game. Having spent multiple weeks drooling over the ‘nice and shiny’ I’ve gotten nowhere as I honestly cannot see any gaming advantage over the blocks for now. I’m going to go through the ‘Portable Wargame’ books (plus Mighty Armies and HOTT) to see if I still fancy a small ‘army’ – this could be a single build project for next year but blowing the dust of the campaign will suffice for now. Sadly, I seem to have misplaced the raw blocks and troop prints for the Japanese Sengoku game – I’m 99% sure they have not gone out (i.e. just buried) but the next round of clear out should make them surface again.
Palaeo Diet is still just about unchanged – I’ve disposed of a pile of 15mm bits (and I think all the 28s) that where impulse bits or not really suitable / poor casts. I have found an interesting (though not proved) article on hunting mammoths and using ‘pikes’ set in the ground so this (and the classic ‘pit’ traps) can be the next modelling project https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-did-ice-age-humans-kill-huge-animals-like-mammoths-probably-not-by-throwing-spears-study-finds-180984958/
Getting better at painting – actually quite excited over this. I’ve an eclectic set of ‘free’ sprues stacked up (historical are going to hate me not using the right colours but I do not care), a few metal or resin 28s I like and a few bits for 15mm SoBH. Enough to try and get my hand / eye back in and have a bit of fun. Add to this the few kits I bought for IPMS then I think plastic glue and newer paint is going to be a big purchase for the rest of the year!
So expect a few posts in the future (I’m not putting myself under any pressure) that are hopefully higher quality content from me at some point in the next couple of months.
tl;dr After 4 months of time I’ve contemplated my navel, part sorted the mind, cleared out a fair bit, retired and I’m back to all but one of the games I planned ages ago!
Spotted this in the news section from Butlers Printed Models the other day:
It’s not as ‘rough’ as I was looking for but looks good on the raised base (and can be built without the porch). It may be possible to add a coating (wood filler or DAS comes to mind) and scratch the reeds into it.
Anyone any experience with Butlers terrain? I’ve had very mixed results with 3D printers (as in companies that print things) on Etsy and eBay over the last couple of years and the quality they produce.
So I stopped coughing enough to get the laptop out (coughed the iPad off my lap today – it bounced) and knocked up this:
The basic rules are nice and simple at first glance, so phasing the turn into four steps I get a table like this:
Then I read my QRS and b*gger – I’ve forgotten the extra 3″ troops get if all the move is on a road – aargh I did not want two lines (normal / road) or worse two sets of phasing so I’ve come up with:
The way to read the table is as follows:
For each phase the letter determines who can move and the sequence they move in. i.e.:
- Phase 1 – cavalry move first followed by skirmish followed by infantry
- Phase 2 – cavalry move followed by skirmish and then artillery get their first move
- Road phase – any units on the road gain a 1″ move
- Phase 3 etc etc
OK – Missed the sequence of troop types on the road (CSIA) but I think this represents my ideal of dashing cavalry, sneaky skirmishers, plodding infantry and slow lumbering artillery but hey I’m not a historical gamer so YMMV (literally) 🙂
Some other points that impact move are simple to handle:
- Pivots are in phase 1 and 5 only
- Units that have to stop at woods / rivers etc do so in the phase they reach the obstacle
- Combat occurs as soon as contact is made – units would then be marked with smoke
- Units that retreat after combat do so in the same phase as the combat and cannot move during the rest of the turn.
I need to think about firing – it’s normally done by units that do not move and I will need to remember which units have moved during a longer turn. Three thoughts so far are:
- Units fire in phase 1 and are marked with a puff of smoke and halt
- Units can move and fire then stop (possibly the most ‘accurate’ representation)
- Units can move and fire and then move in later phases (YUK – Hate this)
For simplicity I like option 1 as it ties in with the hand to hand combat and smoke denote no move in the remaining phases.
Squares could be formed during phase 1, during the ‘road’ phase or at any point – I like the idea of limiting it to phase 1 so the troops do not run across the board and gain ‘extra’ time moving to the square.
The final points:
- Will the use of smoke clutter the cleanish board I have and possibly look odd with the blocks?
- Will this add anything to the game other than possibly extend the time through complexity?
No idea but there is only one way to find out 🙂
Given that I’ve not had the energy to do any gaming since the paint / builds a couple of months ago then I’m actually excited to play a few original style games and then compare to these mods…
Now, where did I put that campaign map???
