Looks like I am about to move again. As a way of making the pile of shame a little easier to hide, I mean move, I have trimmed everything from the frames. This is one of the bags.
OMG how much shit do I own?
6mm wargaming? Well I used to do that quite a bit. Going back thirty years, it was practically all I did. Timing is becoming my thing at the moment, so this is about a month out of date but I went to the Joy of Six recently. It's not really my thing now but a few of my mates, and one in particular, are still keen. So having done my duty in the morning, the thought in my head was "what the hell". It was on the cards anyway.
I enjoyed the show. Some pretty stuff there. I got several ideas. More about the terrain than the figures. I spoke to a lot if people from the world of internet wargaming. So had a nice time there.
For some reason I did not buy anything aside from food and a drink. I was looking at the idea of brigade games' Imperial Skies. If I got two forces I could probably find another player. As my paint queue of 28mm stuff is at least four years, if I only include what is painted and based. I would to think how long the rest would take.
Given that I am more into the idea of gaming in a more compact area, 6mm has a lot of appeal. There has been a lot of growth in the area and it now covers a number of areas I am interested in. Skirmish is still winning, I have pretty much everything I need for that but I am always open to a change. The fact that I still need two armies kind of puts me off.
Polemos rules seem pretty good to me. They have worked for Napoleonics and I imagine they will be fine for the other two mass battle periods that I like the idea of, ACW and ECW, would probably also work. Give that I like the idea of making everything smaller I would like to make the 60mm square bases smaller, 40mm or 30mm. As I am working on the premise of using skirmish sized tables, this would allow me to get biggish battles on the table.
The last gaming that involved 6mm was a Napoleonic game. The plan was to refight the entire The Napoleonic Wars using a boardgame of that name as a campaign structure. That might sound impressive, if not stupid. The plan was big but the forces involved would not have been that high in reality. I was going to be the French and I was figuring £200 would have given me absolutely everything and a few allies. So I spent most of that. I think I was a bit light on artillery but that was about it.
So I started painting. After arguments about rules and basing we started to make progress. Then it petered out. Every now and again I paint a few more bases. Just to keep my hand in really. It's something I wouldn't mind going back to. I play about with the idea every couple of years and I drag a few minis out for some out for painting. As I recall it's the Hussars that have the most interesting uniforms so they get the most attention.
Somewhere there is a part of me that would love to get back into this scale. The idea revolved around using the boardgame, The Napoleonic Wars, as a background. It's already a pretty enjoyable game. I play Napoleon so I do pretty well all the way along, right almost to the end. We had played our way through this a couple of times. This wasn't going to be an every week game but it was an opportunity to get together and make an event of it. Personally I could have see this going on longer than the actual war. Everyone was picking a side, getting the figures. It just kind of fizzled out.
After going to the Phalanx Show yesterday myself and a few friends were at mine to play boardgames. I have a batch of games that I have acquired over the last few of isolation. Not quite a burning desire but I was heavily tilted towards playing them. When they found out that I had a copy of Escape From Colditz, the discussion was over.
You may not be familiar with the game but it was a staple of my childhood. It was a game I played a lot with some long lost good friends when I was at primary school. Its especially memorable because it was played a lot on the last day at school. Osprey Books did a reprint and whilst I thought it would be a nice buy I wasn't going to spend the money on a game I didn't think anyone would play it. Then I saw it in a charity shop for a tenner. I just couldn't not buy it.
So although the clear winner by a country mile, it was only possible because of my friends and we all got a chance to take a step back into childhood.
It is still a good game but to me it is how all the participants play to type. It is possible to figure out what is going to happen when you play with the same people for decades. So whilst I got two of guys to safety, taking chances and getting one killed I did so because the French, in blue (heavily camouflaged on the blue safe squares) were there to give me the kit to do it whilst playing to type, the cheese eating surrender monkeys. Cheers Martin.
Today was Father's Day. I've had a nice meal (eaten very quickly in the playground area of a beer garden because that's what you do) and I got a few nice presents. Phoenix Point (it's a shinier version of X-Com) is a game I have been after for a while and Count Dooku for Star Wars Legion.
Role-playing us about the only gaming I am doing at the moment. Setting aside throwing rocks at Airfix figures and MB Games Tank Battle, the first real gaming I did was Tunnels & Trolls. I liked the way the game sounded way more than D&D. Something that I still feel today. The wargaming thing came along shortly after. It was a long time before board games became a thing and they were usually played alongside the people I used to RPG and wargame with.
It has to be said that I am missing wargaming more than a little. Board gaming is perhaps the easiest ask. There are plenty of opportunities as board game cafes seem to be everywhere now. I have a gaming group for RPGs but would like to run my own games again which looks like it will happen soon. Wargaming, because it's generally one on one is just harder to find opponents for. There are a few possibilities but I guess we will see.
We all know that this kind of hobby is a bit niche. A lot of players are somewhere on the spectrum, even me apparently, and it depends what you are comfortable with. I struggle with rules lawyers and I struggle even more with the "I'm right and I will shout longer and louder than you until you accept I am right, no matter what the rules say". I see this a lot with games geared towards competitive play, the ones with big armies that need big pockets to play. Past experience if these puts me off. Months of painting and a big financial outlay ruined by shouty angry people. This is perhaps why I prefer skirmish games. At least then it's weeks and a small financial outlay.
So I guess what I aim for now is the more solitary experience. My plan to breed some gamers is still work in progress but will take a little time. In the mean time I will just keep it going.
I would say its a shame that I haven't had much time to paint of late but I have to say that is mostly not true. Things have been pretty good of late. Aside from work at least. There is some fun stuff and I have done more gaming in the last couple of months than I have done in the last couple of year and I am having a lot of fun being a parent.
All if that said, this is work in progress, but that's progress right?
Still I found some time today. Whilst I am feeling the urge to move towards Stargrave or Sludge, I still have a load of the little fold on the work bench. Many of my recent painting goals have revolved around humanoid races. For the Viking game I have done enough black elves leaving me with the white elves left to do. I also have some gaps in what I wanted for the character figures for the dwarves, specifically some more obscure character classes and female dwarves. Then the race I have been putting of, the halflings, mainly as they don't feel they fit with the Viking game, I just wanted to do them.
So a few of the white elves have made it though. I am not altogether happy with them. I am not sure I can really make them any better without stripping them, As I don't see that happening I guess this is where they will stop.
The halflings look a little better. There are a few conversions in here that seem to have been worth it. I wanted some more classes than the original figures allowed and of course there are never enough female characters.
Lastly are the dwarves. I have a batch of the old grenadier dwarves I did a few years ago. Again, as most figures are geared towards building armies, there are relatively few female figures, So I have a few more here. The figure with the bird is supposed to be a magic user. As I have a few of those, this would either do as a senior mage in the Viking game or a druid.
When Covid started, I began almost a month off work. Time to get some hobby stuff done whilst I was stuck in. I spent a lot of money on gear and minis with big plans. Whilst I didn't finish anything I learned a lot.
Having pontificated about some terrain boards/tiles for a while, that was definitely the time. so I dove into a hexagonal terrain project. One of my mates was after some new terrain and I had the tools, skills and time.
So now I am looking at the project again. Partly with the idea of doing myself a set and partly considering if I could do this commercially. When I recently was able to get ready access to my shed again I decided this was the time. Currently hating my job so anything I can do to get out of it right?
Having raided the shed I found enough bits to more than fill a 35l Really Useful Box. So quite a few. The plan is to give me a base set but also to have a play about with the idea and see what I can actually achieve. Various sets have been planned but I am starting with fantasy in mind and maybe even a bit of Sludge.
My personal plan is to stick to tables around 3' by 3' or 1m by 1m. Not that bothered which. Most of what I like is skirmish games so this size is perfect. Plus I don't have any more space. When I originally looked at the idea, I didn't have the right tools so looked to buy them premade. Getting hold of hexagons at 100mm was a lot easier than 4" and in the round, the stuff that was out there was already 100mm. One thing I new was that I was going to need a lot of them. At least hundreds.
My original thoughts were just to use the bare mdf but having thought that something a bit more three dimensional so quickly developed the idea that adding some blue foam to the top surface. I am now thinking that it might be better to use a cnc milling machine rather than a laser. It would be easier to get repetition with fewer steps in the construction process.
Here we are though and I am reasonably happy.
