Category: Blogging

November Rain

On By NuadaIn Blogging, Island Life, RPG, Terrain, WIPLeave a comment

Well, we’ve had a break in the rain here, and it’s been gorgeous.

No, that’s not the Lonely Mountain in the centre, that’s Mount Baker 116km away peaking up over the San Juan Islands. The picture was taken in a Garry Oak meadow that’s ready for the rains. And yes, 116km. There’s a plinth nearby with the measurement.
Sorry for the over exposure. The white below the mountains in the distance is thick, thick fog that flows into the Straits of Juan de Fuca and has nicely stayed away for some sunny days

On the gaming front I’ve finished my wire fencing, and also put together some 4Ground barbed wire barricades. The fencing has turned out okay, but when I need more I’ll be building them a bit differently. I’ll probably use skewers in MDF as balsa is just too flimsy. I’m happy enough with them, considering the time and energy involved but they’ll be touched up sometime.

The wire fences are done for now. I’ll probably weather the wire later and dress up the base more, but they do the trick and it’s time for me to finish getting bigger piece of terrain finished

I’ve also noticed that my shortening RPG blog list on this site is no aberration.  Monsters and Manuals, a great RPG blog, has decided to stop blogging. Dungeon of Signs (who created some great adventures) did so about a year ago. Many of the blogs that I enjoyed in the OSR community (a community centered around the return to an older style of play or “Old School Renaissance” in RPGs) seem to be going dark. Now, I know that people say that 10 years is the lifespan of an average blog, but as blogging is relatively new, I’m not sure how much I trust that data set. I think it in the OSR world, it has more to do with acrimonious debate and incivility. The debate tends to be about things ranging from gender-roles in game worlds to what Saint Gygax wrote (seriously, to some people everything in the first editions is sacrosanct). There seems to be increasing polarity, and that is being coupled with RPG blogs being used less to share interesting ideas in the hobby and more to  reinforce how others are having BADWRONGFUN and that they alone hold the answer to how to have fun as is proper.

Personally, I’ve avoided reading blogs that focus on debate, choosing to frequent blogs that share an interesting take on a particular narrative or rules situation, or neat adventure hooks and so on.  Monsters and Manuals had the great idea of a world that rotates slowly and nights last hundreds of years. The edges of darkness would be full of strife with creatures from the darkness running rampant while nomadic cultures would rediscover old ruins when they once again returned to the light. Great stuff and really thought provoking. So, it’s sad to see blogs that come up with gems that you can chew on go dark. It’s also sad to see people lose faith in each other and merely use the Internet as a medium for attack and not discourse or support.

The online wargaming community certainly has its share of characters and opinions, but in my limited experience, it seems to be far more about sharing the joy of the hobby than to bash others. I think that’s why the list of wargaming blogs I’m following is steadily increasing (and if you have blog suggestion, please pass it on).

So, if you’re feeling offended when you read a blog post and want to write something nasty, think twice. Instead, keep on gaming and sharing stories, and pictures and your crazy project ideas. I know my lead pile needs more reasons to keep growing.

Now, back to the rain…

 

A Command Decision

On By NuadaIn Blogging2 Comments

The featured image is courtesy of Desolation Sound looking amazing as usual. The choice there was which channel to go down in hopes of finding some better visibility… This blog isn’t mired (ha!) in the same circumstances, but there are always choices to make.

First, let’s look at intent:

Okay, so this blog is meeting all of its goals:

  • I’m happy with its forcing function (I’m actually finishing projects and more disciplined into my approach to the boxes of unbuilt/unpainted miniatures);
  • I’m connecting (albeit slowly) with the wider gaming community; and most importantly
  • I’m having fun.

So all in all, I’m quite pleased.

Second, what would be the reason for change:

One thing I’ve noticed is that there seems to be less of a crossover of people who play (historical) wargames with those who play RPGs than I might have thought. I’m hoping to expand the readership of this blog and so I’m thinking of making some changes to the display of the posts. I’m also looking at putting a section for house rules up as well, with a PDF of what we’re using here in our small group.

Third, how would the change be implemented:

There are really three options here:

  1. Divide the wargaming and RPG posts. I would do that by putting up a static homepage up on the blog, with instructions to go to the already present RPG/WW2 links to head to the latest post. This would mean that those interested in only one or the other wouldn’t be bothered with waiting or clicking past. The static page could even be a monthly post on living on this island in the Pacific Northwest.
  2. I can make one type of post “sticky” based on my preference at the time and have that post always be the top of the page.
  3. Of course, I could also leave things as they are.

Feedback:

Does anyone have any thoughts or preferences on this?

Note that I’ve slowly been learning the Bluehost/Wordpress management, and have finally added some options for linking in profiles when commenting. I’m hoping to make this site a bit more user friendly as we go forward. 

Croup (There it is!) – with apologies to Tag Team

On By NuadaIn Blogging, Island Life, WAT, WW2Leave a comment

Note: for those reading this blog on email, the pictures are a little large. It may be easier to see this on the site itself: Croup

So it is well and truly the wet season on the island. A week of fog broken by endless rain. Some clearing in strong winds. Repeat.

7am in my neighbourhood, no murderers lurking but lots of foghorns going in the distance

The trees are turning and the temperature slowly cooling. My hobby room is poorly insulated, and though it has an electric heater, has been less welcoming. This has been compounded by the croup. Parenting isn’t something I mention much on this blog as I intend to keep the media presence of my family as low as possible until everyone is of age to make their own (responsible) choices. So you won’t see photos or hear much about the clan. Bellyaching, however, is fair game.

Misery loves company, and let me tell you, croup is misery. For those who haven’t experienced it, croup is an upper respiratory tract infection that in kids causes coughing attacks. It is worse at night and well, the coughing can be brutal as it is continuous and impairs getting oxygen into little bodies. As a parent, this means little sleep and much stress. I haven’t been able to do much game-related in a week of sickness. It seems as if we have turned a corner so there should be more posting shortly. Next up will be another RPG play report followed by some AARs.

I shall leave you with week-old pictures of a WAT action that Lucius and I played. The first few fights were Soviets vs Germans. Then we switched up and did Brits vs the same King Tiger and Panther combo. Note: A King Tiger and Panther vs 3 Achillies is a really fast, fun match, though Lucius may disagree. He had recently painted up the King Tiger and I don’t think it lasted longer than 3 rounds in any of the 4 games we played. After the first match my fingers failed and I have sadly no good pictures. So enjoy the first fatal outing of the King Tiger below:

The first battle – 2 x T34/85s, and lend lease Sherman vs a King Tiger and Panther
The battlefield (same as last week). Once again the Cigar Box Battle Mat looks more brown and grey than in real life. The tank tracks from the previous battles show up quite well. Lucius is grabbing dice that will fail him utterly. I liked those dice that day.
Lend-lease Sherman moving up
King Tiger from a T34. That is a big beast…
The lead T34/85 opens fire at the big German tank
And a second T34/85 joins in and ends it, firing past the Biergarten
The end of an unlucky cat
T34/85 tries to surprise the Panther. Great positioning but I had forgotten that the main gun was unloaded. The cat got away and…
Blew up my Sherman, which burns as the Panther races to a better position. My T34/85s are in the distance. One is behind the house line in the top of the picture
Checking sight lines – you can see the laser from the Panther trying to get a bead on one of my tanks
The end for the Panther. A great fun, and fast game using our house rules for WAT.

 

A (Canadian) Thanksgiving Meli-Melo

On By NuadaIn Blogging, Cunning Plans, Review, Terrain, WIPLeave a comment

Well, it has been a long (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend. We had 2 turkey dinners and so will have leftovers for some time!

There’s a wide range of small updates that I’ll throw here rather than making many small posts (meli-melo means mismash in Canada’s other official language). Here comes the shotgun approach to posting:
  • I’ve been assembling terrain in preparation for Arnhem. I’m prepping buildings for painting and decided to use some woodfiller over the MDF plugs/lugs. I’m interested to see if it works as it was fairly quick to cover the joins.
First bit of filler over the joining lugs. I sanded it after this. More pictures once it’s painted
  • As part of getting ready for the Arnhem I’m making fencing. The scenarios call for wire fencing – linear obstacles that provide no cover. I do have about 8′ of 15mm fences that would work in a pinch, but inspired by John Bond’s work I figured I would make some wire fencing. I happen to have a fair bit of balsa kicking around as well as several hundred craft matchsticks. So, my plan was to push the matchsticks into the balsa, secure with white glue and then tie some thin picture wire I got from the dollar store. Alas, it was not to be. The wire was too strong (the balsa was too weak – MDF would be much better) and broke the matchstick posts off the balsa. Okay. So try to wire the posts together and then mount them! Nope. The wire was a little too strong and kept wanting to pull in one direction or another. I almost gave up but came up with another plan. There was no way I was going to be creating terrain as nice as John Bond, my goal was to look good at 2 or 3 feet. So, cheat! I tied wire around the sticks and then cut the excess off. Then, mount the matchsticks and superglue straight sections of wire in place, kind of like rigging a small model. And it works! So, I have a bunch of fences I’ll be assembling this week. My plan is to rig the fences, paint an undercoat, then flock and put rust on the wire. We’ll see how they look in the end.
A fuzzy picture of my first test piece. Yes, the wire is a bit too loose, but this was my first success of any sort so it remains!
  • Next up will be assembling and painting 2 sprues of FJs I just bought. More FJs? Yes. I’m intending to emulate Tiny Hordes (more here) and make some entrenchments using blue foam, cardboard, and clay. Once the fences are done I’ll be doing a post on how that works.
  • I recently purchased some roads and walls from Fat Frank on ebay. They look great. The walls are based on cork, the roads on rubber. The roads are scaled for 20-28mm and intended for small paths. They look great for a small country road for 28mm, fitting a Tiger’s tracks with a little room to spare.
A small road for 28mm vehicles
The walls look great. They are high enough that figures need to be standing tall to see/shoot over them. I think they’ll do well for enclosures
The roads also work for 15mm well enough as you can see.
15mm Soviets pushing forward on the new roads
The service was very prompt and quite reasonably priced. I know that making roads and walls isn’t impossible, but I needed to balance the time and energy required to do so versus the cost of the pieces. I’m quite happy with this purchase and may add to my collection in the near future.
  • And now – pretty!
The Uhlan
Another view
Lucius not only did a blog post om his North Novas last week, he also painted up one of my Warlord Uhlans. He’s pretty much done his WW2 stuff and is enjoying the Napoleonic uniforms. Lucius was a modeller before becoming a wargamer and as you can see, his pedigree shines through. I am still doing paint by number and hoping to improve. We are slowly getting forces to play some small Sharp Practice with a campaign centred around a certain Richard something. This will be sometime in the future but the forces are slowly coming together.
  • Another bit of news is this:
Shiny and new!
I received the new 2nd Edition Black Powder along with the heroic “Lucky” naval officer! I must say, the sculpt is incredible. I shall see if I can convince Lucius to paint him up! We have a lot of 15mm Napoleonics and are intending to use Black Powder and General D’Armeé for them. I have my Franco-Prussians that are spoiling for a fight so we can trot them out for fun. I’m hoping to try the rules in the next few weeks.
  • In other news, G+ is ending, which is too bad as I was just starting to get comfortable with it and beginning to draw some readers through it as well. This site is doing well though, with more readers every month. I’m still enjoying updating it so SPQVI will not be going anywhere.
  • This week I’ll be putting up another play report from my last OSR game. I’m also hoping to playtest my modified What A Tanker ideas. I think I shall bring out my Soviets to play against Lucius’ Germans…
  • Last but not least is the announcement of “The Cruel Sea”, (Beasts of War news here) a new naval warfare game that pits the light coastal forces against E-Boats! It is due to be released by Warlord Games around Christmas time. I am very excited about it – I have read a fair bit about MTB and MGB operations and the idea of fighting duels out on the tabletop is wonderful. The only thing I’m concerned about is the scale, but I shall try it out with the starter package and then, if necessary, buy other models. Won’t my wife be thrilled…
BT.