What Was I Thinking?

I was thinking this blog was probably dead, which is why I started 54mm or Fight! What little hobby stuff I had been doing, other than reading, had been solely focused around 54mm games and a focus on that seemed logical.

But  now, as I find myself with the unusual situation of increasing free time, thanks in part to the Young Lord Shadowmoss (who just turned 5) playing more independently (some evenings, he disappears after dinner to play Minecraft until bedtime), my mind has been turning to neglected projects.

So, instead of being dead, it may be that this blog was just dormant. Color me surprised.

One thing I'm not going to do is set any kind of hobby goals (*crosses fingers*) , despite my natural inclination to do so.

That said, these are the projects/areas of interest at present that I'm jumping between:

54mm WWII - mostly just playing games, as I have a decent enough collection here for toy-like games (I'm generally not aiming for simulation). I did switch from mostly 1/35ish vehicles to 1/50ish, and though they cost more, I am much happier with the look of the thing. US paratroops are on the paint table since I just re-watched Band of Brothers.

1/72 Italian front, WWI - I read The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919  (excellent book and highly recommend) for background, and I've got several more books to read. But of course, I've started painting (slowly) because I couldn't wait.

Still deciding on rules/basing. Possibly HMG from Agema (command a battalion, individually based) or Hordes in the Trenches (command a battalion, up to a regiment / brigade maybe base per Hordes of the Things), or maybe just GASLIGHT (make individual units a company or battalion; individually based) with some rules for gas and barrages. Trying to keep figure totals small. Contemptible Little Armies (individually based) might work too for that reason.

54mm AWI - this is a very slow going project for giggles since of the places I've lived, I lived in Philadelphia the longest(plus, I recently read David McCullough's 1776). Figures are mostly Imex  and I've got all of 2 painted so far. Might just base these for Neil Thomas OHW with a 4" base, with 8 figures per base, or use them with a set of rules for the period by Charles Wessencraft (woo! Old school!) or All the Kings Men.

Solo RPG - Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls kickstarter stuff came with a bunch of solitaire modules. It's not the free form of The Ever Expanding Dungeon, but I really want to play these modules as they are usually a fun time, very low commitment and obviously, very low prep.

This is not the edition of Buffalo Castle I have, but I wish it was.

Projects and Updates

As you may well imagine if you saw my last post, I've got a lot of packages to get together and weigh and get shipping quotes on. That doesn't mean there's nothing else going on.

For those waiting on the next Ever Expanding Dungeon session, it's coming. I tried to calculate the XP for the last three sessions just this evening, but I didn't really have everything on hand to do that, so I'll try again, possibly tomorrow night when I'm not packing up books to send out. I am also trying to find a way to make the survey responses more readily available during a game. In the meantime, I'll be using Mythic Variations for the in-between story while the party heals, before returning them to the dungeon. 

I also have two sessions of Ariale's game to write up. There's been a lot of bloodshed out Fjorgyn's way!

My second  RPG zine, Save vs. Paper Cuts,  a one-pager that I attempted to get done for DragonCon, is sitting around waiting for me to dig out the scanner, scan the cover "art"/"logo". Once that's done, layout will be a snap since it's only one side of a piece of paper. When it's available I'll alert everyone through the usual channels. It will be available for a stamp basically.

The other day, I decided to break out Cthulhu Dark and play a solo game, more to test an idea than to start yet another campaign. I'll write up the whys and such soon.

Friday night, the GURPs campaign I am playing in kicks off. We're playing the Reign of Steel setting/campaign (I guess?). Honestly, we rolled up characters so long ago that I've forgotten all but the overview I came up with for my character (and the GM has the character sheets, so I can't even remember what skills he has). Let's not even talk about whether or not I remember how combat works in GURPs. My enthusiasm for this was really high back in June or whenever it was, but with so many delays, I have to admit, it's kind of waning. I'm hopeful that once I'm there playing, I'll be as excited as I was then.

The next BKC game will feature a Guadalcanal scenario - I just need a 2 hour window to set up and play the game. That might be tomorrow night, or maybe Friday night after I get back from the FLGS.

Speaking of wargaming, there's a pile of unpainted miniatures that keep looking to me to do something with them. Never mind the painted ones that haven't been out in awhile (they will factor into next year's plans i think). The unpainted ones are probably not long for the sale/trade/give away pile. 

And as for challenges and such, here's where i stand currently on the ten games, ten times:

Game	Total
nuts! final version	10
Blitzkrieg Commander	5
Song of Blades and Heroes	0
S&W Whitebox	9
Tunnels & Trolls	0
Adventure Maximus	2
Urbion	10
Battle Over Britain	2
MIce & Mystics	0
Pathfinder Card Game : Rise of the Rune Lords	0
	38

Given that there's only 3 months left in the year, and that they are busy months for holidays at that (I have my son's Halloween costume to build over the next few weeks, then November is both NaGaDeMon and NaNoWriMo, December always goes too fast), I doubt I'll finish all ten games, ten times. I started in June though when I first heard of it, so I don't feel too badly about it. 

On the other hand, if I don't play Mice & Mystics or Pathfinder Card Game, they'll probably both go up for sale, since I'll have had both too long without any use and I have lot's of other games waiting to be played that I acquired more recently.

Some Thoughts on the Ten Games, Ten Times Challenge

I'm 22% into the 10 games, 10 times, challenge and I thought I should post an update, because I think the experience has already been worthwhile.

What I am finding, and it confirms what I think most of us already know, that multiple plays of a game help reinforce knowledge of the rules, help us learn and improve strategy and tactics, and help us decide how we really feel about a game beyond the first impressions.

By way of example:

One of the games on my list, Urbion, is a solitaire card game that offers both a basic game, and several advanced options, all within one box. 

I had thought when I started that I would focus on getting into those advanced options, since I had already played the basic game a number of times. 

However, I found on the first game  after I officially declared the challenge for myself (and game here means gaming session. I can play multiple games of Urbion in an hour, but I only count that as 1 for the sake of the challenge) that I not only needed a complete rules refresher, but that I had been doing a few things incorrectly the first 5 games which I had credited myself.

It wasn't until the 7th game that I finally won playing the basic rules. 

The game was harder to win than I thought it might be, but, with repeated play, I had developed some strategies that seemed to work, and i was seeing things I could do each game turn that I couldn't see in those earlier games.

About 2 weeks passed between the 8th and 9th session, and so I decided to stick with the basic game. Lo and behold, I remembered the rules! I didn't win mind you, but I played well enough to feel like it was time to try the first of the advanced options.

In the 10th game, I tried the first of the advanced options. 

They add a fair degree of difficulty and the first option alone includes many possible choices. I greatly underestimated the depth of this game in the sense that I thought I'd explore the all of the advanced rules, or at least many, in 10 games.

This was a pleasant surprise and I see that I will get many more hours of enjoyment from this game. So, despite having completed the challenge for Urbion, I will continue playing it.

Awesome, right?

Well, all is not rainbows and unicorns in the realm of Ol' Tabletop:

I have played 7 games now of Nuts! Final Version, and all of these games have been infantry only. I have yet to touch the vehicle rules, nor have I tried the Chocolate & Cigarettes rules. 

Whenever I played Nuts! 2.0, I was always looking up something or other, and that was the case when I started playing Final Version. However, by game 5, except for the non-player "ai" and the reinforcements table, I needed to only refer to a chart once in awhile; repeated play has its merits. 

By the time I finished the 6th game (which was the first mission I completed successfully), I was feeling dissatisfied and started to consider whether or not I should cut my losses and pick a different game to play ten times. 

Another benefit of repeated play: This is a game that at first i was quite happy with but something about the game, after several plays had soured that - having the experience of playing multiple games of Nuts! meant I had data to mine to find the source of my dissatisfaction.

What I found was, it's not the rules generally, but that I don't really like the "ai" for the non-player side. 

This isn't to say the tables controlling the non-player side aren't well done (I lost to it 5 times in a row after all), but that the dice rolling each turn for tactics doesn't suit me - even though it provides a result, it still requires interpretation and I have to wonder then, why roll each turn at all?

What's more, with Nuts!, and the THW reaction system in general, I don't think a non-player decision table is necessary.

All you need is to know the enemy's mission and maybe their general posture (aggressive, cautious, or somewhere in the middle). That should be enough - because the rest of the rules will take control away from you, making sure that, even if you try to make the enemy do something stupid, you'll probably fail because they'll duck back to cover. 

Finally, the provided NP rules and the reaction tables themselves, don't provide an easy way to determine when or if the NP enemy will surrender or fall back. 

Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, I dropped the built-in NP tactics rules (although i kept the rules for moving PEFs as I like those) and used a much simpler system of my own for game 7.

The result was a more enjoyable game (I'll post a write-up tomorrow).

Regardless, after 7 games I don't know if Nuts! is going to be the go-to game for me at this scale of battle - which, even when it starts with a single squad, ends up being around a platoon on at least one side, if not both. It's too many individual reactions and resulting statuses that have to be indicated (even if you roll once for the group, it applies to each individual - your rep 3 Private is going to react differently than your rep 5 Corporal).

Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes/Coffin For Seven Brothers or my own Featherstone's Nuts! (which I continue to tweak) are probably more likely to scratch the squad to platoon game for me, although they should each be subjected to a similar 10 game experience, to be sure.

I have 3 games left in the challenge for Nuts! and I have decided these will all explore the Chocolate & Cigarettes rules. 

This is something new between 2.0 and 3.0. At 3-5 figures, this is the scale of game at which I think THW rules shine - CR3:FV is always a blast to play with just a handful of figures, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the additional role-playing elements add to the game.

Half-Year Goal Review

It's that time of year when it makes sense to review the goals we set for ourselves for the year, to track our progress or to update them to reflect who we are now and not who we were when we came up with them in the first place.

I am relatively happy with my hobby accomplishments thus far this year although not all of them are in line with the post linked above (World War Risus and issue 2 of my zine are two obvious examples). The driving force for the 2nd half of the year will be the Ten Games, Ten Times challenge. However, I think a good bit of my original plan is still intact. 

My social game at the FLGS is well underway - although I switched from Labyrinth Lord to b/x since the PDFs are readily available over on DriveThru - and is moving to 2x a month starting, well, this month. I have what I would say are four core players, three semi-regulars, two who seemed to enjoy it but have missed the last two sessions, one new person who seems like he'll be back, and a handful that I never expect to see again (either due to distance or in two cases, because they just happened to be at the store that day and sat in). This goal is basically on autopilot at this point (not the actual gaming itself - I work hard to study all I can about being a better DM. Although I tend to laugh and joke a lot, people are looking to me to provide them with a rewarding experience, and I take that very seriously).

I have yet to sign up to run a game at DragonCon, although the event system just recently went on-line. One of my playes (and the GM for the GURPS campaign I'll be playing) is a volunteer with the gaming staff and he confirmed that I have pretty much up until the con to do this, but I want to do it sooner rather than later so the game is listed in the program. My problem is that other than the writing seminars, most of the panels aren't finalized yet, so I don't know what's going on when. I'm planning to run at least The Purple Worm Graveyard, but it has the possibility of ending quickly depending on the choices the players make, so I'll definitely need another short adventure to fill the time slot for those who want to keep gaming.

The Japantasy game, well, that is going to require some thought. There's practically no way I'll be able to run that for my home group since they are totally absorbed by M:TG and Guild Wars 2. I would like to run it at the FLGS, but see above re: running 2x a month already. This will probably be a mini-campaign run in 2015, possibly as a brief hiatus from Trelleborg.

For WWII gaming, I have played The Goettge Patrol, The Brush Patrol, and The First Battle of Matanikau (which I never wrote up). If I'm understanding the rules correctly, Blitzkrieg Commander will let me play the rest of the engagements (fielding a company per side with support, max, using 1 base = 1 squad) I planned to play. Coincidentally, that's about five of the ten games I plan to play using BKC in the next 6 months.

I have not yet gotten around to even thinking about The Red Surge campaign from The Red Guards at Kursk scenario book. If I recall, I'm short a few Soviet riflemen, and they aren't really near the top of my painting queue at the moment. They might work their way up, but I'm pretty enamored with the Western Front right now. I would say this is not likely in 2014. On the other hand, Nuts! would be a good ruleset for this.

Return to Helvetica - I want to do this, the question is, how much time do i have and am I motivated enough? I did manage to find a hand written copy of the organization table for the Riesling forces, so at least I know who my commanders are again. GASLIGHT is my choice here, but there are some other rules that could make an appearance. I have been jonesing to play GASLIGHT again, so perhaps at least one game in this campaign will happen.

As for the Great Northern War, I have accepted that this is a longer term project for me. 

Right now, I can field something like 70+ Russian infantry, and 24 or so Swedish. The odds of me getting Dragoons and artillery enough for both sides to do any combined arms scenario anytime soon is rather slim, let alone finishing all of the Swedish infantry. ON THE OTHER HAND, I can do some very very very small skirmishes using Songs of Drums and Shakos (modified for the early 18th C.) or the old THW rules Mayhem: Warring Nations (again, modified) or Mayhem: Muskets and Mohawks (arguably less modification required). And, in fact, that's my plan, just to get them on the table before the year is out.

And then there are the new periods that seem to have sprung up out of nowhere that weren't on the horizon at the end of 2013:

• World War I (1/72, very early war BEF cavalry vs German cavalry, mid-late war Italians vs. Austrians)
• Medieval (1/32 semi-flat Russians vs Teutonic Knights)
• American War of Independence (1/32)

I don't expect any of these to do more than hit the painting table this year, but you never know.

The Upside-Down Flintrubble Bubble Cake (Not Really)

I found myself with an abundance of packing Styrofoam (the bead-y kind, not peanuts or anything) and I knew that I would do something with it, I just didn't know what.

That was, until I saw this video from TheDungeonMasterG on making "no-trouble rubble."

He makes a pretty small disk to mount the rubble on, but he's working with 28mm minis, I'm working with 1/32 figures. So, CDs it is!

I'm clearly not done yet (painting black and grey/white dry brushing remain), but you can get the idea:

The wooden "beams" are fireplace matchstick pieces

I suppose if I was playing a Stalingrad scenario or something and snow was on the ground, these would work as is. 

In retrospect, I'm not a huge fan of the round basing for the rubble,but I have a ton of blank CDs I'll never use for anything.

January 2014 Updates

This is one of those updates where I just lump everything together: role-playing, wargaming, zine-ing, etc.

A scene from a favorite song on Adventure Time
It has nothing to do with this post.

• Of late, I've been working on issue #2 of 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer as often as possible. I'm deep in editing and revising - I seriously feel that I have to step up my game to accompany the amazing artwork I received.

• The majority of my hobby time not spend on the zine has been spent on finishing a mere six Swedish infantry for the Great Northern War by 11:59 PM tonight. Clearly, there's no consequence if I don't, it's just something I want to do. As it is, I've had to revise my original painting plan, and allot 3 months for every 2 months of GNW painting goals.

• Inking in of the Ever Expanding Dungeon map continues. It's tedious, not difficult. Once done, I'll scan it and post it with each session summary and indicate where the action is taking place.

• I've tentatively scheduled the first game of an ongoing open table dungeon crawl campaign for my local meetup group for later in February. The dungeon is not one of my own design, but I still have prep work to do.

• Finally, the budget tally:

January Budget: $15.00

YTD Budget: $15.00

January Actual:  $37.35

• BMC Iwo-Jima 32 Piece Set 
• Britain's Kublewagen

YTD Actual: $37.35

So, as you can see, not a great start on the budget .On the other hand, if I don't buy anything in February (not counting any birthday funds I might receive), I'll be back on pace in March.

It looks like I have 28 really long days coming up!

The Much Ballyhooed 2013 Review

Since I spent such an obscene amount of time contemplating 2014, I figured I should spend a little time looking back on 2013. 

I had a rather short list of goals for the year:

• New wargaming setup -Well, I got the MDF,  and painted it on one side and made all of 1 building and a few trees. Adding the grid to one side should take half an hour at most, and yet it eludes me. Partial success. 
• Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session - Although I did get some painting done, it was not nearly consistent as I had planned or as productive. Fail.
• Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group - Not only did I do this, I did it TWICE. Frankly, this is the thing I'm most excited about. Success.

As the song says, two out of three ain't bad. Or is that 1.5 out of 3?

There were two projects I wanted to tackle but I wouldn't exactly call them goals:

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - This was a game involving as much of what I got under the tree as possible last Christmas. Completed .

Save a Dead Tree Project - This is an ongoing attempt at making headway into the massive backlog of materials I've acquired. This was probably among my top endeavors for the year and the end result is that I read 21 different items (and even played some of them!), including Disposable Heroes and the Red Sun/Red Death supplement (here and here), The Purple Worm Graveyard. and Space: 1889 :Soldier's Companion.

There were some other "nice to haves", none which happened and that's OK. All in all I'm happy with how the year went hobby wise and I'm looking forward to 2014!

My Finalized List of 2014 Hobby Objectives

Once again, I realize that having objectives or goals for a hobby might strike some as being directly at odds with the fact that it is a hobby we're talking about. However, I have a tendency, like many, to have gamer ADD and thus, I find this a useful exercise. 

My list posted previously was quite enormous. It was too much, despite the fact that many of them were rather easy to knock out. More importantly, looking at the list didn't excite me.

So, after much contemplation and effort to suss out from my giant list what's important to me, what I would find satisfying, and what I might not do without the added kick in the butt publicly declaring a goal gives,  I've settled on the following for 2014:

Great Northern War Project

• Play The Advance Guard Action Teaser by June 30, 2014.
• Play a historical scenario by 12/31/14 - Roos attack on the 3rd redoubt at Poltava seems a good candidate.

Details for how I'll get my forces to this point are here.

Fantasy Gaming 

• Run a monthly Labyrinth Lord episodic campaign at an FLGS for the Atlanta Gamer's Guild meetup.
• Run 2-4 sessions of Labyrinth Lord at DragonCon (I'm waffling on running 4 sessions now, worrying I won't have any energy left to play in other games or go to any panels). 
• Run "Japantasy" game for home group

WWII 

• Rising Sun: Operation Watchtower (Britton Publishers)- Play the following Guadalcanal scenarios: The Goettge Patrol , The Brush Patrol, The First Battle of Matanikau, The Battle of the Tenaru, Battle of Bloody Ridge, September Matanikau, Paige's Platoon, Koli Point
• Red Guards at Kursk (Skirmish Campaigns) - Play"The Red Surge" 4 scenario campaign, which covers July 11 and 12, 1943. 

Helvetica

• Play 6 campaign encounters.

Much of what I have mulled over previously is included there, but it's a layer or two down;  I decided to keep the end in mind, rather than the means. 

It's purely psychological.

I most enjoy playing wargames, not the preparation to play them. Whereas, for RPGs, I love the planning. This way, my goals focus on the parts that I most enjoy and find most satisfying.

2014 Goals: Great Northern War Project Planning

The other day, in a fit of "productivity", I spent some time going through the Tabletop Teasers by Charles Grant, presented over at Steve the Wargamer's Tabletop Teasers page.

Although I intend to play historically-based scenarios with respect to the Russian-Swedish portion of the conflict, I know full well, I'll play fictional encounters more often. I have Programmed Wargames Scenarios and Scenarios for Wargames, but both suggest a rather large number of units for any given scenario. Eventually I may complete that many, but in the meantime, I want to play. 

What can I say? Patience is not my strong suit.

The Teasers from Battle and Military Modeling on the other hand are a good bit more manageable - several could be played with 4 units or less of cavalry and infantry, and 1 unit of artillery. So that's my starting point.

My original plans included 12-figure units, but that's still a lot of painting before the Swedes can take the table (the painted Russian infantry is 72 figures strong).

But, reduce the size of the units and voila! On the table sooner.

Really small units (like 4-figures per) can look odd though - unless they're on a grid. And there is the first goal - enough figures to play a grid based game where 1 unit = 4 infantry, 2 cavalry or 1 gun and crew. 

For an example of what such a thing might look like, see Fitz-Badger's Sowitzer League posts here, here, and here.

The next goal is to expand either into larger grid games (larger units or larger grid spaces for more figures) and grid-less games. For this, 8 figures per infantry unit and 4 cavalry figures per unit, in my mind, works quite well for this.

 If you question the aesthetics of an 8-figure unit, again, Sowitzer League provides: here and here.

Finally the large table (for me) game, using 12 figure units of infantry and 6 figure units of cavalry. Each unit would also have an ensign + NCO per All the King's Men's rules.

Based on what I've completed already, here is a painting schedule for 2014 to get me to the 4 infantry units-2 cavalry units -1 artillery unit + 1 officer (with extras sprinkled in):

• Jan - 6 infantry (Swedes), 1 gun + 4 crew (Russian), 4 cavalry (Russian), 1 officer (Russian)
• Feb- 6 infantry (Swedes), 1 gun + crew (Swedes), 4 cavalry (Swedes), 1 Officer (Swedes)

By the end of February I should be able to play grid-based games.

• March - 6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes), 1 gun + crew (Russian)
• April- 6 infantry (Swedes) , 4 cavalry  (2 Russian, 2 Swedes) , 1 gun + crew (Swedes)
• June - 6 infantry (Swedes), 2 officers/ensigns (1 Russian, 1 Swede)

By the end of June, I'll be able to field 2+x as many 4-figure units or four 8-figure infantry units, two 4-figure cavalry units and two guns each.

• July -6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes)
• August - 6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes)

By end of August, if I stick to this schedule, I can field four 12-figure infantry units, two 6-figure cavalry and 2 guns each.

• Sept - 6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes)
• Oct -  6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes), 2 officers (1 Russian, 1 Swede)
• Nov  - 6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes)
• Dec - 6 infantry (Swedes), 4 cavalry (2 Russian, 2 Swedes)

By 2015, theoretically, I will be able to field: 

Six 12-figure infantry units, three 6 figure cavalry units (I'm not even sure I have enough boxes to do this!) + two guns each

OR

Nine 8-figure infantry units, five 4-figure cavalry + two guns each

OR
Eighteen 4-figure units, ten 2-figure cavalry units + two guns each. Might need some more guns!

2014 Musings and Thoughts on the End of 2013

Still riding the high from Saturday's game, I'm throwing myself into the process of finding the next one shot to run for the session I'm hosting in December

And as I'm doing it, my thoughts are turning to hobby goals for 2014.

My goals have traditionally been solo oriented, since that's my preferred mode of play, although I did include one social game goal this year, to run an RPG session for the local meetup group (done and done!).

For 2014, I already know I want to run something monthly for the meetup. Candidates include:

• An "open table" fantasy RPG sandbox campaign  (maybe b/x, maybe LL + AEC, or maybe Basic Fantasy RPG).
• A sandbox Japantasy campaign, or perhaps a multi-session mini-campaign centered around a single goal. This is basically what I'm working on for my home group, and this way I could get double duty out of the prep.
• Running series of only loosely connected one shots with rules light systems like Searchers of the Unknown, one of the many M20 fantasy variants or one of the Dungeon Squad editions. Character generation takes a few minutes tops in these games.(an episodic campaign essentially)

Perhaps the biggest thing I am considering for 2014, is running up to 4 sessions at next year's DragonCon for Labyrinth Lord / AEC (I'm thinking LL rather than B/X, because I want to see if I can get some Goblinoid Games stuff to give away). Biggest in that I'd be exposed to potentially 30+ different players in a few days, running 16 hours of gaming.

Planning 2014 also has me considering the remainder of 2013.

Looking over my 2013 goals, of the actual goals portion (as opposed to projects which I only wanted to make some progress on), I have not done terribly but with 45ish days to go, I'm not likely to make any major in-roads either, not with NaNoWriMo and the holidays.

Although I'm nowhere near completing the Save a Dead Tree project, I have made my way through a good chunk of material. That said, I have also acquired more stuff so it's probably a wash in that respect. Still, I ought to be able to knock out a book or module or something before the year ends.

In fact, The Purple Worm Graveyard fits this description and will also work as a one-shot module for December. Problem solved!

Gridding the MDF and building some scenery and terrain should take precedence over painting minis, but we'll see. I'm 1/2 way through my US Airborne starter force for FoW Open Fire! and just picked up some Cygnar Blue basecoat for my GNW Swedes, so painting is calling me. 

Mostly, i really just want to get some minis on the table and play - since, you know, that's a big part of why I play tabletop wargames and not video games.

A Decision Finally Made: NaNoWriMo Rebel It is!

I know you were sitting on the edge of your seat to learn my final decision.

Sometime around 9:00 PM on October 31, 2013, I decided I'd go for NaNoWriMo as a NaNoRebel. A "rebel" is someone who doesn't follow the letter of the law regarding the contest rules - someone who, for example, writes short stories, poetry, non-fiction, edits an existing novel, etc.

My project? I'll let you know when it's done. 

At 12:01 AM November, 1, 2013 I started typing and did so for about 30 minutes. I've squeezed in some additional time already and I'm about half way to my personal 5000 word goal for today.

It is more than a bit of a hodgepodge at the moment and will probably remain so. The goal is to get the ideas down, not perfect any of them. As a nod to NaGaDeMon, I am going to try to work in a solitaire adventure for b/x compatible games.

I also did a bunch of writing for the zine yesterday, and I'm around 1/2 way in terms of written content. My plan is for 24 pages this issue, with artwork by friends who do art. 

The Swedes are Coming!

These took forever, despite the rather simple color scheme. My colors (particularly the shade of yellow) might not match everyone's conception, but I based my paint selection on a number of sources, illustrations and photographs of actual uniforms (which have undoubtedly faded quite a bit over time). 

Most of the regular Swedish infantry regiments wore blue coats with yellow facings by the 1700s. I will probably paint all of mine this way:

One issue I had was the blue coat over the the black base - it was very dark. I painted white over the coat, and then blue, and the result was marginally better. From a time perspective, it adds substantial time per figure and I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. 

The next 6, I'll do without the white and see what the result is with multiple coats of blue.

Helvetica Campaign Update: Wherein I Name the Tribes and Determine Their Attitudes Towards Riesling

Earlier this week,  I rifled through some back issues of Lone Warrior, looking for an article on a colonial campaign I recalled reading.

The article in question, Dhunda Revisited by Kevin White, appears in issue #178. In the article, Mr. White expounds on a system wherein his country is divided into five tribal areas and how he determines their attitude toward the British, as well as the means by which those attitudes change.

There's more - it's a long article by Lone Warrior standards - including a supply mechanism, which I may or may not adopt (another article in the same issue, by George Arnold, reminded me that each of us has a different tolerance for the details included in a campaign; too many fiddly bits can sap the inspiration).

In any case, I set about creating the lizard folk tribes and their territories for the entire island. This was done by tracing the existing map and then demarcating and labeling the territories on the new map.

The names I have given below are not the tribal names in their native tongue but short hand names given by the original explorers of the island in the 1790s. The indication of Hostile, Neutral or Friendly followed by a number has to do with their current opinion of Riesling.

Northern Tribes - All formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc

• Slitherin - Hostile 4. The shaman of the opening conflict of this campaign was a Slitherin. Of course.
• Serpentors - Hostile 3.
• Cobra La - Neutral 3.
• Cobra Kai - Neutral 3.

Central

• Zartanians (formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc) - Neutral 2.
• Dragon Fist (allied with Riesling) - Friendly 4.

Southern Tribes - All allied with Riesling

• Ornithromyans - Friendly 4.
• Unch-unch-unch - Friendly 3.
• Saurons - Friendly 3.

The scale for attitude is based on Kevin White's system of card draws as follows (from most friendly, Friendly 1, to most hostile, Hostile 4):

1. Friendly 1
2. Friendly 2
3. Friendly 3
4. Friendly 4
5. Neutral 1
6. Neutral 2
7. Neutral 3
8. Neutral 4
9. Neutral 5
10. Hostile 1
11. Hostile 2
12. Hostile 3
13. Hostile 4

Major victories for the Riesling forces shift all attitudes towards Friendly, while major losses shift all attitudes towards Hostile (to quote Mr. White, "None of the tribes will want to be allied with someone perceived as weak.")  Minor victories or setbacks have little effect on the broader sentiment, but will effect the specific tribes involved.

Weekend Plans : May Change Without Notice

With the weekend fast approaching (but not fast enough  I thought I'd take a minute to lay out my plans.

Earlier in the week, I was set on playing the Martian Messiah scenario tonight, but I really want something more like huts for the buildings in my lizard villages. Some searching of the internet last night gave me a few ideas and so I may spend some time making a few, and play Saturday night.

Plus, I've been on a bit of a painting kick lately. 

I don't know why it took so long to see the virtues of having multiple painting projects going on simultaneously, but I finally gave it a try. I now have GNW 1/72 Sweden, WWII 15mm U.S. Airborne, WWII 1/32 Soviet infantry, and Fantasy 28mm kobolds and goblins all in various stages. 

It really helps break up the monotony of painting identical uniforms, figure after figure.

There will be reading and writing and possibly some watching of movies as well, depending on the time I have.

In the meantime, I look forward to the mail arriving today because I'm getting these:

(It's for, ahem, research for my feudal Japan game)

A Look at My Project List

by jordan clarke

Other than reading a short story by J.S. Le Fanu (The Drunkard's Dream), last night was the first night in awhile where I didn't have any idea what i'd do with the free time afforded to me.

What would help, I thought, is a list of my ongoing projects and the next action (I read Getting Things Done once. The system wasn't for me, but the ideas and vocabulary stuck with me) for each.

So, I grabbed a fresh notebook and jotted down the following in no particular order (some non-hobby projects are listed since they have to be considered too):

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story
• The Ever Expanding Dungeon - 9Q session
• Flames of War - clip U.S. airborne figures from sprues
• Solo RPG Guide - write 500 words
• Zine issue #2 - finish write up of dungeon
• Malifuax - assemble figures
• Pacific Theater WWII - make shell craters
• Eastern Front WWII - finish painting 5 Russians previously started
• European Theater WWII - make 6 more trees
• Great Northern War - paint pants on 1 12 figure unit of Swedes
• Save a Dead Tree - finish reading Dragon #82
• Learn to Draw - draw for 20 minutes
• Certify as MCSA SQL Server 2012 - review topics covered on database test for MTA
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion - read wargame rules from The Soldier's Companion
• Sell Gaming Stuff - take pictures of items
• New Year, New (Social) Game - write Pa Ku's player to find out what they are doing during the next 6 months of game time
• Dungeon crawl for others - schedule next session with my test group

It was then a matter  of picking something based on the time available.

I ended up reading some Japanese ghost stories I found online, the relevant rules from The Soldier's Companion and I finished Dragon #82 (the section on spell research has a d100 list of book names that I will definitely want to use at some point).

Of course, that means new next actions for those projects:

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story (I intend to read most of those in book mentioned)
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion  - walk through a simple scenario to learn rules
• Save a Dead Tree - Read Dragon #86

As my many previous posts on my goals/plans should have taught you, it's unlikely I'll stick to this for long, but for now, I'm going to run with it.

The Halfway Point Review - 2013 Gaming Goal Progress

Yes, yes, I know it's a hobby and goals and such kind of wig some people out when it comes to "down time" activities, but I like to have a plan, generally speaking, even if I end up abandoning it entirely.

Probably because I enjoy making lists, but that's neither here nor there.

Or maybe it is, because this itself is a list:


Save a Dead Tree Project

Making my way through all my unread printed game related material is going to take some work for sure. 

Read:

• Dragon issues - Best of I and II, plus several other issues
• The Purple Worm Graveyard
• Peter the Great's Army: Infantry
• Poltava: 1709
• Currently reading Warfare in the Age of Marlborough

Read & Played:

• Nuts! War Against Japan
• Disposeable Heroes
• Red Sun, Red Death (DH supplement)
• Traveller (Starter Traveller book)

New wargaming setup 

• The basic MDF boards are done, but I do want to paint the backs and grid them for Morschauser/Cordery-type grid games. 
• 10 palm trees in progress, and my 5th 1/32 Seuss-ian pine tree just needs to be glued. 
• Made 1 hill, although not my favorite. I'm experimenting with foam to see if I can't make an old school step hill, without the jagged edges of my first attempt.

Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session
I hit Jan - May, and then didn't paint at all in June (to my recollection). I foresee a return to the painting table in the near future.

Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group
I've been reading 1 pager dungeons to see if I can find something I want to run as a one-shot. I really wanted to run The Purple Worm Graveyard, but I think it's better saved for players who are familiar with old school play. Otherwise they probably won't make it past room 2.

Projects (they don't have to be completed, but progress made): 

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - I won't be able to use everything unless I turn the books into hills, but I have a silly WWII / Pulp-ish scenario in mind. Maybe I'll play this tonight.

A WWII PTO campaign -  I have two PTO campaign PDFs from Britton Publishers that are surpassing the Nuts! War Against Japan campaign generator in terms of likelihood of play. 

• I've acquired some much needed heavy weapons for the marines to use once off the beach as well as some tanks, that admittedly, will see little service. The tanks and heavy weapons need to be primed and painted.

A three battle mini campaign for the GNW Russians and Swedes usingScenarios for Wargamers or Programmed Wargame Scenarios. This is simply not going to happen any time soon. I don't even have the Swedes cut from the sprue yet, let alone painted.

A VSF campaign that returns us to the island of Helvetica. 

I am thinking that it will start with  consist of the two sample scenarios presented in the Space 1889: Soldier's Companion, and utilize those rules to fight the battles, but feature Riesling and lizard-folk, not British and Martians. Very likely to happen this year sometime, but I can't say when. Probably should call this a "micro-mini campaign."

Celebrate the centenary of H.G. Wells's Little Wars. This is definitely happening. In part, my zine's first issue was part of this, but I would like to get the 1/32 figures out to the mosquito-infested backyard - maybe with a Nerf gun. I'll probably do it in July, to coincide with the anniversary of Kursk.

So. Many. Miniatures...Reaper Bones Unboxing

Everyone's doing it, so I figured what the heck. Here's my Reaper Bones Kickstarter unboxing:

The box opened!

That little Death/Grave Digger guy:

With the invoice removed:

Cthulhu!

Extras are packed loose:

Inside the Vampire box:

I'm a little overwhelmed to say the least. 

Some of these will be given away, some sold, and the rest painted.

Eventually.