Well, they are miniatures. They are about battle (in the future). But they have magnets! And they are awesome! No dice rolling needed as the good obviously will beat the bad. I am talking about STARCOM.
Finds
Category: Island Life
A Bit of Bragging
This may not mean much for those readers in warmer climes, but for those in more northern climes, well, this is why I enjoy living on Vancouver Island.
Continue reading “A Bit of Bragging”Little (Snowy) Town… (with apologies)
Well, Vancouver Island has snow. I had seen the first cherry blossoms already, and there was much laughter at the rest of the frozen north when this happened:
The picture above is before we got an additional 25cm. All in all, we got a proper winter storm. 90km+ winds, big trees blocking roads, cars in ditches (and a firetruck), people driving like 4 wheel drive means 4 wheel stop. It was a winter wonderland! I even saw a man skiing behind a pick-up truck while using a towline. Magical.
So the city had a conniption and pretty much shut down and we all got to enjoy being like the rest of Canada for a little bit. The snow is still there, but it is starting to melt and is apparently going to be gone by the end of the week. We shall see.
Also on the home front, you’ve probably noticed a drop in the frequency of posts. I was injured at sea several years ago, and I’m about to go in for yet another surgery (I hear the 4th time is free)! So the last bit of time has been about getting everything in the house ready for me being an invalid. Again. I find that I’m becoming quite the expert at it (to my wife’s chagrin).
In order to be properly set up for healing, I put together a table for What a Tanker! I figured that I can play with one hand and having the table set up would make it a simple matter of choosing tanks and rolling some dice. So here is the village:
I proudly showed CinCHomeFlt and she commented on how it was a nice little town for my little people. We then started to spontaneously sing “Little Town” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and I came up with some alternate words:
Little town, such a quiet village,
Every day, just like the one before!
Little town, full of little tankers,
Waking up to say… <<Kapow!>>
There goes the Tiger, wide treads as always,
The same old 88mm shell!
Every battle just the same, since the battle that we came
To this poor provincial town!
I could probably go on, but I shall spare you all. I will also blame any and all strangeness on medication, snow craziness, or simply being weird. Take your pick.
So, that’s all for now. I’ve got some Ready for Battle posts ready to go, and I’ll be pushing “Publish” on those as we go forward into recovery. I’m hoping to get a post out every few days, and maybe even a play report if things are going well. Until then, have fun!
An Update
It’s been a hectic week and a bit, so fewer posts. As you probably saw, I’ve managed to clean up and post one of the last of the RPG play reports for the Old-School game I ran earlier. I’m really looking forward to being finished those. They’ve accomplished their goal of reconnecting me with running games, and I’m more than a little tempted to just stop where I am as the story line drags and becomes hard to follow. It is also a fair bit of editing work to get it out as a post. Mind you, I do like finishing tasks, so I may yet continue.
The weather here has been warmer than normal – and that is saying something. Here on Vancouver Island we’re blessed with very moderate winters and this winter has been warmer than most. Evidence is below:
So can’t really complain about that when I have family in Ottawa dealing with being colder than Mars.
I’m still slowly working at getting terrain sorted for the Arnhem campaign we’re looking to start next month. I’ve managed to get some fencing done, along with the first bit of work done on the Timeline Outbuilding. There needs to be some flocking added and some weathering and touch-ups, but the 4Ground fence was a quick and easy build and I’m going to turn my attention to some larger structures next. The good thing about doing this prep is that it will make it much easier for me to run games as my collection of terrain is growing nicely.
I did managed to get a game in of “A Test of Honour” last week, which was great. I really enjoy the game and it’s probably my favourite skirmish wargame to date.
Nate brought over some lovely terrain and his terrain mat from Euro mats:
The terrain was made in Europe for Infinity (a sci-fi skirmish game) but it lends itself very well to what we want to use it for.
The battle was a simple seize the objectives fight, with a turn limit and reinforcements for the defender. I defended and tried to concentrate my forces, while Nate threw his samurai up one side, hoping to knock my samurai out and take the centre of the table. It ended up being a lopsided victory as my samurai was able to defeat Nate’s 2 samurai and my spears threw his ashigaru back. Not so much of a victory based on superior planning, but I remember someone talking of lucky generals before so I will not complain that the dice greatly favoured me. No good pictures sadly, except of these lovely buildings. They come pre-painted and the doors are removable.
So overall, things are looking like I’ll be able to get some more gaming done soon. For the next Test of Honour fight I’m hoping to do a proper AAR as the game certainly warrants the attention. More terrain to come, and hopefully a game of What a Tanker later this week!