Family Time and D-Day Beaches

Family Time, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

It's been quite the family hobby time lately. Number One Son has taken some real interest in things since getting his Spinosaurus at Historicon, and I've had the gaming table covered up with his stuff lately as much as mine. And to keep Number Two Son, four, involved as well, I picked up some chubby plaster statues for kids for him to paint right alongside us. It has frankly been a blast, as they both have their own little projects to work on, and I can even work on my own stuff a bit. A little bit. The Mumak is now in, and our last two evening have been spent gluing that behemoth together. It's a pretty sweet kit, simple for its size, and pretty accessible to an eleven year old.

Dark Ages History Podcasts

I listen to a lot of podcasts while commuting and painting figures. Lately, I have been trying to fill my time with podcasts on the history of the Dark Ages. Saga has been a lot of fun, rules wise, but I can't claim to be very knowledgeable about the period. Rome fell, the Vikings came, Western governments started to be entangled in questionable Middle East wars, and the Normans conquered England. Getting more in depth in the period, though, has really revealed a lot more interesting history. Here's what I have been listening to:

Reworking the Queue!

2012-08-25 16.24.26, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Well, that didn't last long! Warlord Games' Bolt Action is on a lot of people's horizons lately. Our local Hobbytown USA ran a bunch of demos today. I wasn't really expecting much from the place, honestly. They run a fair amount of 40k and some Flames of War, but I never get down there for a couple of reasons. I already have plenty of gaming with pleasant people I already know in the comfort of our beer-filled domiciles, and their hours of operations don't really jibe with my own need for late night gaming. Nevertheless, I was curious to take a look at the rules, and had the time today, so Number One Son and I headed over there.

Form a Queue

I'm trying to get myself a little organizized, so I am forming a queue of shorter term hobby goals. I'm not really creating firm goals; I'm just trying to keep a little better visibility of what I'm thinking about. I've got a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head and I could certainly use a bit of direction at times... I may post this list again periodically as items are completed. BWAH HA HA HA HA...I slay me.

Ranger, lead the way!

Yeah...I had been sitting on some birthday money and it is now away, for a couple of Ranger platoons and two Armaments in Miniature LCAs.

SITREP: D-Day

Laying out D-Day, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

After I finish painting up the Infinity figures I'm working on, I want to finish preparing for a D-Day game. My goal for the year was to run two D-Day games, and it's getting late in the year. I grabbed some beach and water colored fabrics on my way home from work tonight and proceeded to lay it all out on the table, so to speak, and take stock of my situation. Here is what I found:

A Little Prehistory

Spinosaurus, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Here's the latest state of Number One Son's Spinosaurus. Last night we glued it down on a plasticard base and covered that with Liquitex Ceramic Stucco. That basically an untinted "flocking gel." I use it a lot on my bases. He's pretty exited about it and kept want to make fancy bases, but dour Daddy dissuaded him from anything too advanced. Although, it's not too late to put some interesting stuff on there.

Infinity PanOceaniac Fusiliers

Infinity PanO Fusiliers, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

A couple of guys in the game group were talking about starting Infinity up. What the hey, I already have plenty of the figures, so after seven some-odd years, I have started painting them up. Here is a photo of the first three. I see now that I didn't finish highlighting the blues on the two men. Naturally. They are based temporarily on the regular bases. I'd like to do something more interesting, although I'm not sure what. I also think I'd like something more hefty, as many of the figures will be quite fragile and I'd like the base to strike the floor first when I drop them!

More Saga

Playing Saga, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Last Friday, we broke out Saga again. I was hoping to run the Escort scenario, but the player with all the wagons canceled at the last minute. We fell back on killing each other's Warlords. We set up with six points each this time, and one army of each faction. It wound up going a little long, though, and I think it probably would have been better to have stuck with either four point armies or a different scenario. Still, everybody seemed to have fun. I was reminded to take stop motion video of this game, click More to view it.

Playing Saga

Like most of you, probably, I've been hearing about the Dark Ages skirmish rules Saga lately. I played it at Historicon and was intrigued. It has something of a board game mechanic added to it, which reminded me a lot of Alien Frontiers. It's not strictly historical, outright attempting to recreate the tall tales of the Viking Sagas. The leaders stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field, although we're not really talking the excesses of 40k here.