A Bit Of An Update

Aside from the recent Partizan show report, I've not done anything vaguely game related for well over a month now, other than reading books, which is always going on in the background. A couple of reasons for this, namely our daughter and son-in-law came to stay, so the games room became an office and the fact that we've had stunning weather for about 6 weeks now, breaking records left, right and centre. With the latter I'm like a moth to a flame, so I've barely been indoors for the duration! 

Despite all of the above, the old grey cells have been whirring away, pondering all things gaming related, so I thought I'd do a bit of a catch up on some of the main points. So in no particular order:

Campaigns

These past few years I've really found so much pleasure in small, manageable sized campaigns, compared to one off games. That's not to say they don't have their place, such as going through the OHW scenarios, but it's just not the same. Despite having many books on campaigns, I've found the easiest for me a simple narrative driven one. I suppose I get a rough outline in my head, flesh out the objectives, come up with the starting scenario and work from there. Depending upon the period, this is easier to do than others, with WWII and BKCII now almost second nature. A SYW one might be another matter, but a nice challenge and fun researching it.

Too Much Stuff?

A bit of a heretical statement I know, but bear with me. Over a month ago I started planning an AVBCW Campaign and wanted to paint some pieces up for it as part of the narrative-cum-objectives. But I simply couldn't find the piece in question (a WWI mortar), despite searching high and low for it. So ann hour or so later I finally found in literally the last place I looked. But alongside it I found other items I forgot I had bought, as well as in the search realising just how much unpainted lead I had stored in bags and boxes. With my glacial painting pace and my painting arm slowly getting worse each year, it did make me stop and think what do I really enjoy playing, and as a result what should I put my focus on over the next few years in terms of painting? I've got an idea but I do need to have a good old sort out and in the hard, cold light of day, make some decisions about what to keep and what to part with. Challenging but cathartic at the same time.

Vlogs vs Blogs

Whilst I do watch and enjoy a few Vlogs (Little Wars TV, Mark's Games Room for example), by and large I do wonder why people watch them, when you could easily scan and read the content in a fraction of the time taken to watch the video on Youtube? Ditto for the content creator, based upon comments over the years about the time taken to do the script, record, edit and upload. Personally Blogs are just so much better 99% of the time.

Rules

A comment on a Blog a month or so ago, where the group had played a game using the 'Hail Caesar' rules, but in a different period from their norm. At the end they felt that in essence they were playing the same game, but just with different figures, army names etc. So this got me wondering how common this might be, and whether this applies to all rules and periods. Thinking about my BKCII games, if I was playing Poland 1939, France 1940 or Barbarossa 1941, then I do think that essentially the games would be incredibly similar, given the materiel used, German 'superiority' in C&C in general. Ditto Italy 1943 or Normandy 1944. But the difference for me is the narrative to the game, even though it might be yet another flank attack, seaborne landing etc. So would different rules for each period make any difference or not? I don't think so, but then I do tend to use the same core rules and mechanics for all my games.

Magazines & Books

I keep thinking it would be nice to buy a wargames magazine now and then, but if I'm brutally honest, I can't find anything that really interests me in them, whether it be WSS or WI. Not being a 28mm gamer is probably part of the reason and, as we all know, the content is largely aimed at this 'scale', as that's what keeps the magazines going. So I much prefer to buy a 2nd hand book in a period that interests and follow Blogs that align with my interests.

Random Stuff

I thought I'd take some photos of some stuff that I've painted, made and bought over the past couple of months:

The 'Maltese Falcon'. An old Revell snap together kit (or something like that) of a Fokker DR1, that I probably made and primed some 15 years or so ago! With my planned AVBCW campaign, I finally added a Peter Pig pilot, and chose a colour scheme to go with my Police Force. I used some very old GW transfers and was lazy in not painting gloss lacquer first on the fuselage, so that transfer backing shows up horribly, but you don't notice it during the game.

My sole purchases from Partizan, a water mill and church, both 6mm Battlesclae from Pendraken.

One of my other hobbies is woodworking, and despite having a lathe for 5 years now, I finally got around to having a play. I've wanted a dice tray for some time, so decided to quickly turn one to get my hand back in, as it's been 30 years since I last turned anything! Made from a piece of scaffold board, it serves its purpose and I want to make some more with nice wood.

After seeing this reviewed by Norm Smith, I just had to buy it and it does look very good.

As with the above, when Keith in NZ mentioned this on his Blog, I managed to track down a very cheap copy. Sadly it was in pretty poor condition, but my old modelling making skills resurrected it somewhat. A great read for sure.

With the WotR be rather en vogue, this was bought to try and improve my knowledge of the military side of the Wars, which this does a great job of doing. Highly recommended, even if some of the information is dated, specifically about Bosworth. 

Getting Back On The Wargaming Bike

Having been away from the painting and gaming table for so long, I'm honestly finding it hard to get back into the frame of mind. Of course the glorious weather hasn't helped, but now it has turned, I'm seeing how I can slowlly inch back into things.

A bit of bed time reading and inspiration.

I always love browsing through these old Airfix magazines, which takes me right back to when I still in single figures age wise! The Rapid Fire booklet has sparked that old WWII flame, so I'm hoping to add some more support bases for my BKCII British and German forces and then finally paint them up, as they've lain far too long just primed and waiting to go. A bit of focus is nice, especially with 6th June fast approaching. Time to dust off my ideas for a fictional Canadian landing? It would be nice...

Thanks for getting this far and reading my waffle, which just might have been of marginal interest!  As always, any comments greatly appreciated:).

TTFN.