I Have a Friend...

For the record, this is really not about me.

I have a friend. No seriously. I am not sure he feels the same and has used the phrase  well, over the years I have come to regard him as some one I've met. This friend as well as being a gamer has a particular thing for electric shocks. There are details but this is not that kind of blog. Anyway, we have "enjoyed" many games of Settlers of Catan. The regular game, not the starfarers one where the ships look like...no it's not that sort of blog.

Anyway I came across this odd idea that might be of interest to him.  Electroshock Timer Will Speed Up Every Game of Settlers of Catan. No seriously. For most of us I could see this speeding the game up but for this friend of mine, well lets just say I can imagine the phrase, "have you got wood" having a whole new meaning.

Character Names For Star Wars

On the subject of Star Wars, a fairly tangential connection, we were discussing character names. I have a friend who came up with the name  Stilton Torpedo for his character. This was perhaps the worst name I have ever seen in a game. He was referred to as Lonely Cheesetube from then on. So, whilst drunk we came up with a convention on character naming for Star Wars. All names must involve a rocket or missile for the first name and a cheese product for the surname. I became Hawk Manchego. The instant vibe I got from this was the Rivera Kid. Not my natural territory but I think I can make it work I just need a character for it. That said there is a Vin Diesel like character with a mug in his hand which is perhaps more in keeping with the ethic and what I want in a character.

It springs to mind mind because I saw the Fantasy Flight Games are releasing Jabba's Realm. Now a friend of fancies himself as Boba Fett (just a dedicated businessman) although in his case Bob Effete might be more appropriate. Now I think that he might be a ranker (or is it spelt rancor, you could see how I could make the mistake). It is a pity that Jabba the Hutt is no a playable character that said Bib Fortuna or Salacious Crumb might be more appropriate.

I like Imperial Assault, I have played it a couple of time now. It has to be said that I like the figures more than the game itself but the game itself is pretty good too.

Too Much Going On

Yesterday disappeared. Well figuratively at least. Too much illness, whining, kids with stuff to do, family members and pets needing feeding amongst others. For me, aside from a little YouTube in the morning that was about it for me. Today is not looking much better, so much stuff to do. Well at least it's my mum's birthday but this isn't going o be all that much fun as she is expecting bad news.

I was hoping to get out and go gaming last night. For the first night in over a year. But I guess that was a bust. I was really looking to it. So I guess that ship has sailed. The same goes with painting. Whilst I am getting some painting done (for the first time in weeks) the amount I am getting done is minimal. I set myself low standards and I am failing to manage to meet even them. I was expecting to get a base of 6mm infantry done every day but at the moment it's looking like one every three or four days.

Normally, when I can't do either of the above, I get a chance to get some electronic gaming in. A mix of crappy internet, a low powered laptop and the summer holidays, as well as all of the above, are making even this difficult.

Well things seem to be conspiring against me. That's just talk though. This is a situation of my own making and I guess it is down to me to make the changes. That sadly is looking, for the most part, pretty unpalatable as well. I need my mojo back...or a lottery win.

Gadding About - Again - Kroot Raiders

I am back on the Napoleonics now but the focus got lost again. I painted ten of these. Well it was something to do.

I was hoping to do something along the lines of Titansgrave, The Ashes of Valkana. Not sure I could run the main campaign in the book, bits of it are a little too kitsch but I could turn it into something playable. It's kind of high fantasy sci-fi and I was thinking what sums that up as a genre more than anything else and came up with Star Wars. So I had a think, what could I get cheap and do some repaints on and all sorts of GW stuff came to mind.

Not Kroot and not Tusken Raiders either

So I got these Kroot figure. I don't know a lot about them in the 40k verse but they look a bit scary and tribal. So relating that back to Star Wars I thought Tusken raiders. They were a bit bashed up but that gave me a few ideas. I don't like the long guns so they got trimmed a bit and the flash hiders on the barrels became scopes.

I have a view that these guys are like drunken raiders rather than anything else. They live on the periphery of society. They must get their tech from somewhere but I can't see they walking down the high street.

I am still debating turning Titansgrave into a Savage Worlds game but I am guessing probably not. My normal way is to try and get figures that I can use in multiple games but I am struggling with these. It is possible they could become something post apocalyptic but probably not Fallout.

More Napoleonic Cavalry

Even more Baccus 6mm Napoleonic Hussars. I like the Hussars on one level because they are nice and colourful. On fairly mundane (but not drab) battle fields, the Hussars have a bright and snazy uniforms. Anyway, this is the mornings work so far. Still a bit more to do.

They are about right but again it is hard to find all the details you actually need. Still some more detailling work to be done but will do that as a batch when I am ready.

Large Scale Battles...On A Smaller Scale

I am feeling the urge a lot at the moment. No not that urge. I have an itch that only painting seems to scratch and I am feeling that I want to have a bit of variety.

Baccus do really great figures, or so I am told. They are way to tiny for me to to tell. Anyway, I have found some stuff I started just after finishing another unit. I am pretty sure that they are meant to be the 4th Hussar.  I was looking at some of the Warlord 28mm figures and feel happy that my mates chose 6mm instead. Once they have been finished off and inked up, they should be a little darker

I am pretty sure that I got some details wrong so I am not really interested in anyone who is a Napoleonic expert telling me where I got it wrong.

Mixed Bag

Same workbench different paint rack

Well I have a work bench again. I have managed to find the paint but a lot of stuff is still missing. I suspect that it is in the garage. This is a bad thing as I suspect much of what I have in there is hidden behind really big stuff. For some reason I seem to have a lot more furniture now than I used to and as I am in a smaller house, things are beginning to tell.

I have too much paint for the racks I had. So I have built some new ones. A quick and dirty job and even quicker now that I own a table saw. It seems to work well enough and I can fit in all the paint I have and there is room yo spare for some more and you can never have enough paint.

I am a little bit ambivalent about what to do next.The usual suspects are floating around. Dark age fantasy is still floating around and there is stuff to finish off. There phrase I used was practical procrastination for a reason. I had done a few frostgrave figures but I am not really feeling it at the moment. I got the last "gnickstarter" but in my head that is all stuff that will get done eventually. Speaking of stuff to finish off, I am also looking at doing some more X-Com stuff. The more I look at it, the more I think GW is the way to go, with a few exceptions. I have done a bit on the not Imperial Guard and may get round to doing a bit more.

I noticed something on YouTube call Titansgrave, the Ashes of Valkana. As a bit of a Wil Wheeton Fanboy I thought I would take a look see. It is really a fantasy game but with a Sci-Fi edge (if you don't think that will work look at Shadowrun or 40k). It has started me going with a few ideas and I have some figures that will do well (I thought gnomes were hard to get fr regular fantasy but space gnomes, they are a true rarity). I like the idea and I have some figures that will do fine but even so, this would be a big project.

Another old project came up in conversation a couple of weeks ago which was a Napoleonic campaign. Part boardgame (The Napoleonic Wars) and part wargame (Marachel d'Empire) using 6mm figures. I remember painting some a while back but we could never really agree on the rules (game balance in one will affect the game balance in the other was my only real issue with it). I have a hankering for doing some of this and if I can find he figures (I have about 800 French figures). I think they want me to be Napoleon more because they can gang up on me than I have any tactical gifts.

Old role playing games want to come back an haunt me and Conspiracy X was one of my faves. I have gone as far as making out a wish list and setting up the rules I have found for a conversion into Savages Worlds but think that these would need a little bit of work.

Anyway back to the real world...