Let's Get This Show Back On The Road

THE PLOT GOT LOST A BIT

Before it drifted off into the realm of cynicism and p*ss taking as a result of watching one particularly well known wargames forum digging itself further into the clarts over how and by whom it was run, this blog was really just meant as a means of keeping a record of what painting I'd done plus the occasional games report. I really think it's time to stop rubbernecking at the trainwreck that the Dark Place has become and spend the time painting!

Looking forward to next year the first thing that I really need to get done is clear the desk of all the bits of things that are already on it. At present this amounts to:

20 15mm TYW Swedish Infantry THAT WILL ACTUALLY FINISH THE TYW SWEDISH PROJECT!

8 15mm Spanish Napoleonic Artillerymen for the Talavera Scenario

2 15mm 12Pdr Guns that will double as French and Spanish

12 10mm Crimean War Infantry.

RULE 1 FOR NEXT YEAR - FINISH ONE UNIT BEFORE YOU PUT ANOTHER ONE ON THE DESK. CLEANING UP METAL, BASING TREES AND REBASING WHILE THE PAINT/VARNISH DRIES ON THE CURRENT PROJECT JUST LEADS TO INCREASING PILES OF UNFINISHED BITS ON THE WORKBENCH.

SOME TARGETS FOR 2014

I think 2014 needs to be a terrain year. In 2013 I changed the way I set up the table using terrain mats with hills created by "stuffing things underneath". This was mainly inspired by Jeff Knudsen at

Warartisan,com

I've been following Jeff's site for a while as the the rules he's written, "Napoleonic Command" have intrigued me for several years. There have been some great reports of his games posted on Flickr and linked to at the Dark Place. The terrain is exceptional and all done with terrain mats contoured by putting toy stuffing underneath. The settings are also realistically sprinkled with minor terrain items too, but here's where the genius of his rules come in - walls, hedges and minor streams have no effect unless want them to. Major walls yes, wide streams, yes, but bog standard walls and things that require you to lose 1/3 of a move every 

time you cross them or prevent charges or whatever have no effect other than to make the table look bloody great.

So I want to get some more terrain features and try to get the table looking something like Jeff and his group's table, but I don't want to get into too much scratch building, so I think a few more orders will be going in to:

www.totalbattleminiatures.com

I have been really impressed with their prepainted rivers and I think I will be getting some more plus a couple of their tiles for hamlets/villages, etc. If you order them painted you have to be prepared to wait a while, but the end product is well worth it.

As far as trees, etc. are concerned, the landscape-architect-son-in-law has just given me a load of various forms of trees and Woodland Scenics stuff left over from his degree so it will be an order to ERM miniatures for some of their MDF woodland bases in the New Year.

Figures-wise I will continue adding to the Napoleonics for the scenarios in "Wellington's Victories". The additional number of units required gets less of a problem for each scenario - well at least until the two cavalry scenarios anyway.

I want the Thirty Years War project finished this year. As I mentioned above, the Swedes are virtually finished and just need the bases done. I've stopped using static grass for new units - it's too much of a pain in the backside to use and no matter how much you try some always gets left on the desk and stuck in the varnish, so from now on it's ready made tufts from:

www.tajima1.co.uk/

When the  Swedes are done I need to paint up a few pikemen for the Imperialists and rebase the rest and that's it!

Then there's the 10mm Crimea business. I said I'd do this with Scotty, but his ability to paint by telekinesis from work during the day coupled with my slow pace and timewasting on sundry internet wargames forums has left me miles behind. I need to complete a division with artillery plus a cavalry brigade at least to ease my conscience.

All the other bits; Flodden, Greeks and rebasing the Hundred Years War Armies on Impetus bases will just be there to relieve the monotony this year.

Baseball

There will be a two week gaming hiatus in April as we are going back to Toronto for the opening home games of the 2014 season. This will doubtless be another year when the Bluejays  greatly under achieve and  languish at the bottom of the AL East, but as I follow ( I don't actively support) Newcastle United I am used to this sort of thing. The major difference is that going to the Rogers Centre in Toronto is a friendly, pleasant experience whereas I won't even set foot in THE TOON on a match day.

Anyway, no matter what the result against the Yankees on April 4th, it should be a great experience. FF to 1:50 on the following video - cant wait:

Rogers Centre Opening Day 2013

All the best for 2014.
Neal