Back from Texas and getting ready for the Swap Meet

Got in from Texas last night.

Five days straight of gaming, movies and beer; I never thought that I could get tired of gaming but I found myself exhausted. Thanks Tom, it was a grand time!!

I return to find a foot of snow, WTF!!!

Anyways, while gaming my butt off, I had a little time to think and I have decided that there is little chance of me ever finishing most of the projects that clog my "toy room". Thus I will be opening the vault and making available almost all of my collection of "unfinished business". From 1/12 scale plastic figures to 5mm minis and everything in between, I have tons of stuff for trade or sale.

I am looking for 25/28mm Victorian Science Fiction/Back of Beyond, 25/28mm French and Indian Wars, female Pirate figures in 28mm, 1/2400 scale WW 1 cruisers and destroyers, 1/100 scale Cold War helicopters (Soviet or US) circa 1965, 15mm AK-47 Republic  stuff (T-55s, kalishnikov-armed Africans, etc), 28mm buildings that can be used for Mexico/Sicily (you know that red tiled roof and stucco walls look), 28mm Victorian/Wild West buildings. And, of course, CASH.

Anybody reading this and needing to find my house send me an e-mail at; daftrica89 at yahoo dot com and I will reply with my street address so that you can "google maps" me.

Keep Painting!    John

Some painted Perrys French Heavy Cavalry



A while back I painted some of the 28mm Perrys plastic French heavy cavalry, they turned out pretty well given my limited skills. I have always liked the Perrys horses, they seem to catch the energy and position of an animal in motion better than most, the riders aren't bad either.
Pictures after the break....

Not Exactly New (but still very nice)

Some of you may be getting tired of my rantings about the new wave of plastic 28mm figures; if you belong to that group skip this post.

If you like the idea of plastic 28mm figues at a fraction of the cost of metal (along with a significant step forward in quality) read on! Some time back Victrix (website http://www.victrixlimited.com/ ) brought out their Napoleonic British Artillery set and a wonderful thing it is.

More Swap Meet Updates

Having been to some swap meets at gun-shows where thing got out of hand I thought that I would publish some rules beforehand:

Swap Meet rules

1.     Label your stuff clearly; price, who owns it, etc.

2.     Rule of thumb is trade is set at price for price, i.e. if I paid $11.00 for it I can trade it for something you paid $11.00 for. This is the base-line assumption; if you are willing to be more flexible please state as much at the beginning. Don’t bring stuff for which you want more than current retail; this is a swap meet, not a collector’s fair.

3.     If you are selling for cash please have a placard or tags stating your price. Haggling is O.K. but give everybody an idea of what you want.

4.     Your handshake is your bond, don’t agree to something that you don’t want to go through with.

5.     Please try to be on time.

6.     There will be a short time set aside at the beginning before trading so that we can all check out what is on offer.

7.     Respect other people’s property, don’t paw through things and bust stuff, make sure you put stuff back where you got it. There is no need to hurry, this is a casual affair. Pottery Barn Rule; if you break it, you just bought it!

8.     There will some refreshments on hand, but please, do not bring food.

Two Ideas I am working on......

The first is a conversion of Space Hulk rules to a World War One trench raid, there are ton of pretty figures out there and I feel the itch to paint them. The problem being that most WW1 rules suck. My idea is that the raiders would take the part of the Terminator Squads while the defenders play the role of the bugs. I am still working out the details and intend to do the terrain as geomorphic pieces that can rearranged to give different layouts.

The second idea is based on a picture and cryptic desription of a game in a British wargames mag of a hunting Jack the Ripper game. It is only described as very fun and interesting. I am working on a method of hidden movement and reproducing the foggy night streets of old London. This is coming together nicely at the rules levekl, now all I have to do is build a couple dozen buildings and some streets! I am still trying to nail down the whole night time gaslit streets thing, anybody got a line on Lionel scale streetlamps that light up and flicker?

Anybody else working on something off the wall?

Tentative Feb-Mar gaming schedule

As usual I am open to people offering to run a game, if you are interested in doing so contact me with the date and details and I will enter it on the schedule listed below.

Looks like it is shaping up this way;

5FEB no gaming, I'm going to O'Mara's to hear my favorite Irish band and have a few beers

12FEB 1900hrs at my place, Dan A will be running a Victorian Science Fiction Role PLaying game using GURPS, bring your top-hat (pith helmets optional) and very best stiff upper lip.
Gin&Tonic and Vodka Gimlets will be on hand.

19FEB no gaming, going to Texas to play at Tom's

26FEB my place 1900hrs

MARCH
5MAR 1900hrs NOTE this will be the swap meet, bring your old toys/cash we will probably play something quick and easy afterward.

12MAR 1900hrs my place

19MAR 1900hrs my place

26MAR 1900hrs my place

John

First test of AK-47 Republic

Well we had our first test of the new and improved AK-47 rules. Aside from a few glitches due to this being the first time we played the rules I think things flowed well. The mechanisms are easily understood, the charts are well organized (and get this rules writers, there is a cite on each section of the cheat-sheet directing you the the relevant sections of rules - true genius!) and it's color coded as well.

Swap Meet Update

I am thinking that early March would be a good time to give this a try.

As it stands I will probably be hosting the meet at my house, I have a large basement and an understanding wife (plus it saves me from having to haul my stuff to another location).

John

Wargames Factory War of Spanish Succession Infantry

Joe Dobson was kind enough to pick up a box of these from RIW Hobbies. You will find inside 36 well proportioned and detailed figures that will provide foot figures for many units during the War of Spanish Succession, with minor adjustments you could use them to build units from 1690 through 1730.

2 Spartacon Games Reviewed

A quick review of the games I played at Spartacon...

Spartacon

This year Spartacon was spared the customary "weather event", somehow nobody seemed dissappointed with that! I played in one game (a French and Indians Wars ) and hosted another. I had a blast in both.
I took some pictures but the hall was just dim enough that they ended up being rather dark.

Favorite ruleset

Everybody has a few favorite rulesets, different ones for different periods, some old some new. What I would like to know is what are yours, and why do you like them?

For me it goes like this;



Ancients; WRG 5th edition, largely for nostalgic reasons, it is painfully mechanical in parts but if you are playing with people that have a working understanding of the rules, it moves pretty quick.

Dark Ages; Here I favor the Warhammer Historical Rules, to my mind the way the rules emphasise heroes and elite leadership nails down the spirit of the period. It is also well suppported by Army Lists and uses the familiar Warhammer/40K mechanics.

Middle Ages/Renaissance; Here I must say that there is nothing that really moves me. There are some workable sets but just not much that jumps out at me.

Age of Reason;  With this one I am going to blow my own horn, I like my home-brewed rules they reflect my perception of combat in the era of linear tactics. I am working on tightening them up and will publish them here eventually.

Napoleonics; I am rather smitten with Black Powder right now, it seems to capture the spirit of the times and is easily adaptable to reflect the idiosycracies of national armies. Another plus is that it can be played with any armies that are based in a fairly similar manner. Don't be put off by the gigantic quantities of figures in the units that were photographed to illustrate the rules, we used our Nappies that were based for the old Empire rules (twelve figs to a battalion) and it worked just fine.

ACW/Franco-Prussian/Etc;  Here I am thinking that Black Powder may fill the bill, another contender is Ever Victorious Armies. Both possess quick, clean mechanics and are highly adaptable to handle changes in technology. E.V.A. has a points list that allows you to create troops from an ala carte list of skills and weapons that is pretty neat.

WW1; Nothing ever seems to get a grip on the period wiothout turning into some weird version of a board-game with all sorts of steps and reactions in every turn, either that or they end up as a Wild West skirmish games with really dangerous weapons. Not happy with anything so far.

WW2; Here I will once again let my ego run rampant and say that I like my rules the best (really, why wouldn't I?) They are also on the list for a polish up and publish.

Moderns; I don't play, I don't care. Now for modern Colonial affairs AK-47 Republic is a great set of rules with a very different slant, I like them a lot and will probably build a few armies.

Naval;  Wooden Ships and Iron Men for sailing era, my own rules for pre-dreadnoughts/ACW.

Air Combat; Wings of War, mechanics that a seven year old can understand in ten minutes but a tough and challenging game due to the need to think ahead and the highly variable damage system.

Sci-Fi; Space Hulk wins hands down, super clean mechanics and a riot to play, but it really is just a very pretty board-game. 40K is right behind that with well refined mechanics, a mileu that has the depth and breadth of a good novel and a selection of army types that are different and fun to play. There is a reason that GW is the biggest force in wargaming and 40K is a big part of that.

Post your favorites in the comments