So the son and I watched Ep 1 yesterday-- the daughter was grounded, so she will be catching up on Friday. Anyway, I went in as open minded as I could. I didn't let my opinions cloud my son's judgment, and I thought maybe I was simply playing into the conventional wisdom about how bad the movie was. But no. It really is a genuinely bad movie. It has genuinely terrible dialogue at times. Ah well. My son knew all the names of everything from reading (and rereading) a Visual Dictionary I have. Especially during the underwater scenes. As they enter the water, he says, "Ah, that's the Water Breather 99!" or some such. A monster appears, "That's the Sando." I was on the verge of laughter! He seemed to enjoy the movie, and didn't seem to think it was any better or worse than any of the others he had seen (IV-VI).
My kids have been on a big Star Wars kick lately, and I've bought them some of the Collectible Miniatures. You may recall that I bought a bunch of these a while back. There is now a fixed Obi-Wan in a starter, so I picked that up, too. Well, my son got a Reek in his pack and was about to wet himself wanting to play with it, so I sat down and rumbled with my 7 year old son.
We ran through the starter's introductory game, with Obi-Wan and two rebels vs. Darth Vader and two stormtroopers. I played the rebels, and got beat.
So, for game two, we built our own 100 point forces. My son took the Reek, a Vornskr and a Dark Trooper Phase III. I took Obi-Wan, a Rebel Captain, a Rebel Heavy Gunner, and Elite Rebel Soldier, and Wookie Soldier and a Twi'lek Bodyguard.
I felt bad for the poor kid as I didn't take it easy on him. I set my Captain and my heavy gunner up at the end of a long hallway to take twin fire from both on the Reek as he turned the corner into to melee with Obi-Wan. The Reek was tough, though, killing the Wookie and with 200 HP, soaked up a lot of damage until the Dark Trooper could emerge halfway through the hallway the heavy gunner was shooting down. Again, my tactically poor son killed his own Reek by using missles against Obi-Wan-- which did damage to Obi-Wan and killed the Elite Rebel Trooper. Hmmm...maybe those tactics weren't so poor... The Dark Trooper then killed the Captain, depriving the Heavy Gunner of his Twin Attack. The Heavy Gunner managed a Critical hit, but couldn't stop the Dark Trooper before going down himself.
That left Obi-Wan and the Twi'lek! Hang on, I could still pull this out. They double-teamed the Vornskr as the Dark Trooper Crited Obi-Wan! The Twi'lek bodyguard valiantly through herself in front of Obi-Wan, saving him, and he had both the Vornskr and the Dark Trooper on the edge before going down himself to the Vornskr. Junior wins again!
I didn't think the CMG rules were that bad, really. I had fun playing. There was probably a bit more reading and math than my son could do and really have fun, but I helped him along and he enjoyed whipping his old man two games in a row.
...I'm just very, very tired. My wife and I had our third child, Silas, on March 12.
He was quite premature (32 weeks), but everything has gone really well and he is home after about four weeks in Intensive Care.
Here's some stuff I've painted recently, and some I will be posting on TMP for sale.
First up are some 40mm Sash and Saber FIW Indians.
I haven't been particularly historical with the tattoos. I figure they varied quite a bit among individuals. I've tried to use what I've seen in the Ospreys as a basis. Now, the guy on the left, I painted a black line down his face. Then I thought it would look could with a red line down either side. Then I realized his head looked like a football helmet. I do like the guy in the shirt-- even if I did forget his eyebrows.
I got a bunch of Fantasy done. Here's a reaper Egyptian:
Black Tree Designs giant spiders:
A Reaper giant spider:
A Reaper giant bat:
And finally some old RAFM spider mutants:
Oops! Almost forgot, Poncho now has Lefty to contend with:
I had intended to sell the spider and such before Halloween but real life, as always, intruded.
Color Match 1.0 is a very interesting utility which will match various paint colors. Using the full line search, for example, you can find the nearest matches to Games Workshop paint colors in the Delta Ceramcoat line. It really needs to include support for the Decoart Americana line.
In a real blast from the past, Mik and I played a game of Blood Bowl last night. His Chaos beat my Humans 1-0. It was a great game. I really had forgotten what a fun, great game Blood Bowl is. We're starting up a league.
You may be aware of FUMBBL-- I finally got around to registering for it and plan on playing some games there. What you may not be aware of-- in fact, you definitely aren't aware of it unless you're one of about ten or so people who have very great memories-- is that I was one of the first people to play Blood Bowl online. I started getting guys from the old Blood Bowl mailing list to play via IRC. This is probably 10 or so years ago. I made irc.icx.net-- long gone, but there are still references to it hanging around-- and wrote a chat bot called NuffleBot to roll dice for us. There were no graphics, I had my board out next to the computer with both teams on it, like old school chess, and would relay the changes to my opponent. "#12 from E4 to J1" or whatever. Ah, the good ol' days!! Talk about just like old times...Mik caught me in an Illegal Procedure, and I forgot to use my Apothecary!
Did I tell you about taking 3rd place in the '95 UK Games Day? I'm in two issues of White Dwarf... Didja see my stunty Gutter Runner? Huh? Didja huh?
Update: Here you go, old school. That looks like almost 15 years old...man, I'm old.
TGN has an Elfball review up. One of these days, I'm going to actually play this game...
Brian of Repple Depple is new locally. I met him at Historicon this year, but missed his recent Check Your Six! game, Too bad, it looks awesome! I've added him to the blogroll.
Some pictures of what I've been painting lately.
First, the rest of my 40mm Sash and Saber FIW Indians. That's my 10 figures for the month. Make sure and check out Mik's Minis, where I'm sure he'll be posting pictures of his ten S&S Indians, which are no doubt painted by now! ;-)
A Reaper Eye Beast, probably to be sold off on TMP soon. He turned out a lot nicer than I expected!
Old Glory Army's latest figure, Poncho. Will probably go in trade.
The Iron Duke from Silver Age Sentinels. He might go, but I like him a lot, I may keep him.
Yes, busy indeed. My third child is due around the beginning of May!
Will I finish my SG2 stuff before the end of the month? I'm not doing too badly with it so far, but I don't think I'm quite going to make it. The Real World (curse it!) has thrown me a couple of left hooks this month, and I just have not had the time to work on things. If it were just me slacking off, I'd feel a lot worse about it, but it's been mostly legitimate, so no complaints. I'll at least keep the queue unadjusted, and maybe I can catch up a little bit in the next month.
Not much. Not much that was any fun, at least. I was oncall for work, and got called in early on Friday morning. It seems our data center's air conditioning failed, and it was as bad as I've ever seen it. I had equipment so hot, it would burn your hands to touch it. One CPU outlet was registering 58 Celsius. Friday night, a major data circuit failed. Saturday, a tech at a property wiped his core switch configuration trying to do a password recovery. Plus, each kid had a birthday party to attend, but not together. Whine whine bitch moan. Anyway, I did start on some buildings...
I had intended to scratch build the buildings, but decided I just didn't have the time, so I poked around for some 15mm buildings. There wasn't a lot, but I decided to use some from Dream Pod 9 for Heavy Gear. They're a little small next to the figures, but the ground scale works out nicely. Putting the buildings in scale with the figures makes them almost 50 yards long. I kept my scaled-up test for a large warehouse, and will print out several smaller buildings to accompany it. They go together quickly, and I will probably base them on thin plasticard (tip: you can get cheaper plasticard in the form of For Sale and such signs at hardware stores).
In an effort to keep myself more consistently productive and to channel that productivity towards specific goals (which is my real problem), I've decided to keep track of everything I've finished as well as commit to future dates when specific projects will be finished. You can follow along in the right hand column here towards the bottom, under the links. My real goal is to have a new project once a quarter. My definition of "project" is fairly liberal, pretty much a new scenario I can run that requires some creative effort on my part. Examples would be maybe a small scenario in a new scale/genre, or something which expands things I already have.
Initially, I'm being a little aggressive, with two projects in two months. The first is to run a double-blind Stargrunt 2 game. I have been threatening and threatening to do this for at least a year, maybe longer, so now I'm just going to knuckle down and get it done. Fortunately, I don't have an extreme amount of work to do to get it done. My buddy Mik has one of the forces, and I'm nearly done painting the other. I will need to create some new hill and trees which match items I currently have, and I want to make some buildings for it. I should be able to get it done by the end of August.
The second project would be woodland Indian skirmishes. This is currently somewhat tentative. I bought the 40mm Sash and Saber FIW packs at Historicon, and gave ten to Mik for his birthday. This would let us start painting them and getting them on the table. I have some rules in mind, but I haven't received them yet, so this might still change.
Maksim has a nice post on 6mm autos, something I've needed on occasion.
Okay, here is a batch of stuff that I've finished lately and finally got around to photographing. They're a tad underexposed, but not too bad.
My 40mm AWI Grenadiers from Trident/MSC. These are really nice figures. I should go back and touch up a few of the eyes, but I'm pretty pleased with these. I'm looking forward to doing the rest of my militiamen, although I might wait until after I get the spare hands packs, just to see what I can do with that.
Zeppelin Troops from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures. I've had these and the US Rocketmen for about a year or so, but the .45 Adventures rules got me excited about them again. Plus, you can get started playing with just a few figures.
One of the things I was really looking forward to buying with my Old Glory Army discount was some Cobalt 1 Palansi. I love these guys! Well, of course West Wind discontinued the line right before I got my membership. I still managed to find some seriously discounted at Historicon last year.
SWAT teams. I got 20 painted up, 10 West Wind and 10 Wargames Foundry. They're both nice, although god forbid the US starts arming their SWAT teams with SAWs!
These have turned out to be some of my favorite figures of all time, my Genestealer Cult. I've had these figures for ages, and in fact, I remember starting the Ogryn hybrid at a place I haven't lived at for ten years, so it counts and the figure it has taken me the longest to complete! The robot is a TALOS unit from Kryomek. I tried to make him very weathered and rusty. The effect didn't really turn out that well, the rust looks like some sort of camo pattern to me, but he still looks good in general.
Superfigs! I got almost all of these at Historicon last year (although there's a power armor girl in there from VOID). I love these figures, really nice, lots of character.
I'm too tired to muck around with linking the photos to the front page right now, I will do it later, but I have taken a lot of new pictures. Check out the tail ends of the AWI 40mm, SciFi, Superheroes, Survivors, Pulp and Misc folders if you're interested. Otherwise, I'll try to make a post tomorrow with them all in one place for easy viewing, with some explanation about what they are or why they're cool (to me).
I painted 10 25mm SWAT figures and 3 40mm AWI British Grenadiers. I'm on a roll!
So, I'm lying in bed sick, and I realize my head feels like Rosie O'Donald Trump is locked inside it with a bad toupee buffet just on the other side. But it could be worse...
Boy George W. Bush: When he invades your country and puts your people back to work, bombings go down. Suicides, however, are way, way up.
Henry Kissengeri Halliwell: Do you kill yourself on principle? Or squeeze a breast and try to blow your brains out before the full horror of what you've done sinks in?
George Michael Pataki: Goodbye, NY Governor. Hello, NYPD, plunger division.
Barbara Walter Kronkite: Boy. There's just no upside to that one.
Rick James Bond: I'm Bond. Rick James Bond, bitch!
Marion Barry Bonds:"Bitch, set my drugs on the table."
Halle Barry White: "Oooooh, nooo." Five cans of whipped cream can be fun-- once. Every time, and you have a problem. Likes to decimate buffets and leave without paying.
Prince William Shatner: "I'm...going to...BE...king...someday."
Lenny Bruce Willis: "Yippee-Ki-Yay, ****sucker!"
Larry David Hasselhoff: Very depressed that Bush stole K.I.T.T.
Nicole Ritchie Valens: "Va-va-va-vaaaaa-va-valium! Va-va-va-vaaaaa-va-valium, percoset, whiskey! Concentration camp figure!"
Add comments if you have an idea. I'm going back to bed.
I finally got around to fixing the gallery. I'm not crazy about the layout change, but I think it might grow on me. The subalbum listing is convenient.
Okay, it's true, I suck. In my defense, I have been pretty busy in the real world, and just have not been gaming or devoting the time to this site. I shall return, though! Probably after turkey season...
I upgraded some stuff on the server, and broke the gallery. No big deal, but it may be a day or two before I get around to fixing it.
I went to see my first hockey game Friday night, as our neighbors' children were playing between periods for our local bush league team. It was a blast-- there were two fights in the first ten minutes. My wife was obviously not very familiar with hockey, and leaned over and asked, "Is that allowed?" I said, "No, but it's expected." I don't know if this is normal for hockey fans or just because the fans around here are a bunch of rednecks, but they were enthusiastically cheering the fights and booing the referees for interfering. Even my wife said, towards the end, that she'd like to see another fight! I feel like the Junior General. Now I just need a cat and to start complaining about Peter Forsberg, whoever he is.
I got my five year old son Heroscape for Christmas. He is really enjoying it. We played a little intro game, which he won, and then he played a lot "free style." Mik was coming over tonight for some Necromunda, and my son wanted him to play Heroscape, so he ran his first game ever! He really got into it. He and I were on a team, and things were going poorly for us. We had killed nothing all game and were on the ropes, when he kills his sister's dragon. The boy stands up in his chair and and goes crazy!! We almost pulled it out, but in the end, we lost. He had his head in his arms and was about to cry. I will have to have a talk with him tomorrow about sportsmanship. After he went to bed, Mik and I played Necromunda and I kicked his ass!!!!!!!! TWICE!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! IN YOUR FACE, MIK!!!!!! ;-) I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.
I upgraded to the latest version of blog software. Please let me know of any problems you notice. In particular, I'm trying to turn off the old blacklisting utility which had, I think, started to cause more problems than it solved. Update: Okay, I think I broke all comments. Give me a little while, I'm tied up at work and can't work on it right now. Update: I think I've fixed it now. There may be more spam on the site now, but I will try to nuke it as I see it.
Well, I finally broke down and bought some figures. There was a batch of Infinity figures on eBay and I bought a fair bit. I could have let them pass, but I got them at 20% off the War Store prices, including shipping, so it was a deal too good to let pass. In all fairness, I had achieved the monetary goal I was looking for, if still three weeks short of when I expected to.
Maybe people don't believe it at first sight, but below is a screen capture of the greatest video game ever made, a game I have been playing for around 15 years-- Nethack.
Fundamentally, the game is a dungeon crawl. You have to take your level 1 character down through the many levels of the Dungeons of Doom, find the Amulet of Yendor, and escape with it. The game itself has been under development for 30+ years-- the source code to game is freely available, leading to a variety of people contributing to the game throughout the years.
Most people are turned off my the ASCII graphics and the UNIX vi direction controls, but if you download the PC version (as opposed to telnetting to nethack.alt.org), there is a nice graphical overlay and you can use your keyboard's arrow keys to control your character.
In this screenshot, I have just cleared the fifth level of the Dungeons, the first level of the Gnomish Mines. I let the game select my character class at random, so I'm playing a Tourist, one of the hardest character classes. In the middle of the level, I ran into some Hill Orcs. They always come in groups, and are pretty tough at low levels, so I was worried. To make matters much, much worse, one of them had a wand of Create Monster, and zapped it empty before I could get to him. Even worse, the Orcs and all their various creations were ALL between me and both the up and down stairs. However, I was pretty handy with my +2 darts, and had about 30 of them, and I had a drum. I started beating my drum, and scared off the Orcs and all the non-undead creatures they had summoned. My pet dog Hastur and I finished off the undead, although he was of limited use due to his tendancy to stop at every non-rotten corpse and eat it! Using a couple of Healing potions I had, and the drum and my Expensive Camera to cause fear in the all the creatures, I managed to attack the creatures piecemeal and defeat them. Whew! It really is one heck of a great game.
A gaming buddy, Mik, and I went to the local IDPA match again, and here are the videos. I will see if I can't get the fullscreen stuff working later. Update: the full screen videos now work, with a resolution of 640x400, so they're a little larger. Update 2: Results are up, we did alright. That's the first time I've made the top third, and a bunch of the top guys are best in the state from Cleveland.
The first stage was highly appropos-- you started typing at a keyboard and then cleared your house. However, because of all the walls, it wasn't really worth filming.
On the second stage, however, you are entering the house.
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Here you are double-bunking at Historicon when, enraged at cracks you took at Phil Barker's writing, crazed DBA tournament players attack your hotel room! You should really know where to draw the line.
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The modified Bill drill again. I didn't do as well this month as I did last month. Update: Actually, I did about a point better. A little faster, but a little less accurate.
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A stage with a car. Some places actually use real cars.
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Mik had recently gotten a new GLOCK 17 so we hung around after the match and plinked at some (8"?) steel targets from about 25 yards.
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Hope everybody enjoyed Thanksgiving. I haven't been updating much because I was in Atlanta for a week on training and then in Kansas City for Thanksgiving. That's a lot of driving! Yet, despite visiting the War Room and Table Top Game and Hobby, my resolution to buy no miniatures through the end of this year remains in tact. I doubt I'll finish up the 40mm AWI I recently got in time to buy any more...I just haven't had time for the hobby much this month, and my Grenadiers are languishing, half-painted.
This weekend, I was working with lead in a different form. I shot an International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) match sponsored by the Oak Ridge Sporting Association (ORSA, IDPA page). I just found out that had started-- it's one of a couple around Knoxville, and fortunately closer than Greenville and Chattanooga. It's been about a year since I last participated in IDPA, and I was pretty rusty but glad to be back in it. We spent a very nice Saturday morning running through seven stages. I then beat my head against the wall for several days figuring out how to embed the video in my website.
My overall score for seven stages was 120.63 seconds, 92 points for accuracy (each point is a half second penalty), and 10 seconds in penalties (two failure to neutralize). That was 17th out of 34 people, but my accuracy really hurt me. I'd have to go back in check, but I had one really bad stage I rushed through too quickly. I'll update this post with my scores on the individual stages once I get those again.
The Bill Drill. Draw and put six shots in the target as fast as you can. Since it was a drill and not a stage, you could elect to not use concealment (my jacket), but I chose not to. Man, watching the video, my draw seems soooooo slooooooooow. In my defense, like I said, I hadn't shot outside of a static range in a year, and I was taking it a bit easy.
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El Prez. Turn and shoot three targets twice each, reload, and shot twice again.
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Bill Drill variant. I placed 4th on the day here, my best showing. Draw, shoot furthest target 6 times, reload, shoot middle target 6 times with strong hand, reload, and shoot closest target 6 times with weak hand. The first 15 seconds of the vid are lenscapped, though, but all the shooting is there.
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Walking the dog! What kind of bad guys jump you when you're walking the dog?
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Shooting while seated. This is the stage I rushed and had really poor accuracy on. The video looks good, though, except for the slow draw and my coat sleeve getting snags on my mag pouch. Again.
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A fun stage with a door and a moving target (which you can't quite see...you can see the rails once the door is open). I was pleased to get the popper on the first shot, one handed.
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Another moving stage. Apparently, the other groups shot the last target through the window, but we went around the side.
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Note to parents: getting your five year old son, no matter how badly he wanted it, a black and camouflage head-to-toe ninja outfit to go trick-or-treating after sun down is a baaaad idea. At least he had a flashlight, I could almost keep an eye on him.
We moved over the summer. We had so few trick-or-treaters at our old neighborhood that we actually drove back there and hit a few houses so they would have somebody! At our new neighborhood, it was like a block party, with gaggles of 30 people at a time moving up and down the streets, meeting each other multiple times as we criss-crossed the subdivision blocks. And they won't stop ringing the bell! Here's a tip: when it's 9:00 and the lights are all out, WE ARE OUT OF CANDY!! Besides, you look like you're 18, I wouldn't give you any candy anyway!
The resolution is out the window once I get my current batch of Trident 40mm AWI figures painted (and they're next in my queue). Check out the new releases I just got in an email!
MORE FROM TRIDENT DESIGN'S "BATTLE ROAD" RANGE
(Figures are $3.50 each unless noted) (Discounts apply for large orders)
(Ready to ship first week of Nov.)
Minutemen
AWC 29- Officer/Sgt. waving men on with tricorn in one hand pointing with spontoon in the other.
AWC 30- Standard Bearer running, tricorn, vest.
AWC 31- Standard Bearer kneeling, Standard in one hand pistol in the other, bareheaded.
AWC 32- Drummer advancing under fire, playing drum, floppy hat.
AWC 33- Drummer kneeling leaning on drum taking aim with pistol, tricorn.
British Grenadiers
AWB 9- Officer pointing with sword shouting orders.
AWB 10- Standard Bearer walking with standard.
AWB 11- Drummer, drum slung on back crouching down walking, with pistol in hand.
British Regulars
AWB 30- Mounted British Officer pointing directions with sword, tricorn..........$ 12.50
British Light Infantry
AWB 200- Standing firing in leather cap.
AWB 201- Kneeling firing in leather cap.
AWB 202- Standing loading in leather cap.
AWB 203- Kneeling preparing to fire in leather cap.
AWB 204- Standing preparing to fire in leather cap.
AWB 205- Standing at ready, musket with bayonet in leather cap.
AWB 206- Running, musket with bayonet in leather cap.
AWB 207- Advancing, musket at 45' with bayonet in leather cap.
AWB 208- Advancing, musket across body with bayonet in leather cap.
AWB 209- Officer running with sword in one hand, firing pistol in the other in leather cap.
(Coming in a few weeks: "Militia Artillerymen and Gun" )
(Still to come from "Battle Road", British Regulars, Fusiliers, Artillery, & many more surprises.)
New AWI Ranges from Trident Designs to come soon:
1. "Equipment & Supplies" (of the AWI)
2. "Characters & Personalities" (of the AWI)
3. "Settlements Ablaze" (Woodland Indians of the AWI)
4. "The Early Years" (Early War units of the AWI)
5. And more ranges projected in the AWI
Well, one way to get around my resolution is to trade! I traded a buddy some VOR Union power armor for some of his old Harlequins, and am currently working a deal for some more Star Wars figures. I think this in the spirit of my resolution and no big deal.
Here's the update on my no purchases resolution-- sixteen days, two paychecks and no purchases! In all honesty, though, I did see a couple of deals I couldn't pass up, but they either got bid up on eBay so they weren't a bargain anymore, or shipping was a killer, or stuff like that. So far, so good, but it does seem that I might be tempted by a deal too good to pass up!
Yesterday was "Call In Sick And Play Wargames All Dang Day." A guy we used to game with came into town, and I took the day off to hang out a buddy's house and play some games with them. We did some Supersystem and then some Warmachine, but we mostly just fooled around and chatted. In the evening, the rest of the guys who didn't take the day off showed up and the guy from out of town wrapped up the Sci-Fi d20 Modern campaign we had been playing when he moved away. It was a pretty fun day, but I'm beat today.
The Super Simians and the Khador figures are mine. Updated: One picture from the RPG game-- the point where Buzz and I said, "You know? We don't really need to hang around this place."
Really, if we were able to look at the sales across all the pre-painted manufacturers, they may well dominate already, and here's why. For just over $100.00, I bought a substantial amount of figures, had them shipped to me, and will be running a game with them tomorrow. From purchase to play in about a week for about $1.00 a figure. You just can not beat that. I don't think they're going to drive the unpainted market out of business, as it certainly does not provide the same feeling of accomplishment or enjoyment that I get from painting and creating. However, considering it would have taken me, realistically, two years to have painted all these by myself, assuming I even finished, it opens up areas of marginal interest, like Star Wars for me. I would never have devoted the amount of time it would have taken to paint all these figures up, I'm just not that interested in Star Wars. But, hey, if $115.00 buys me enough figures to sit down and play with my son and my friends, who like Star Wars more than me, well, I'm going to do that.
I'll be running a 5150 game with these tonight. It probably will be an Imperial ambush. Leia et al. start in the middle and have to exit off either "short" edge. Imperials start on the short edges. On activation rolls of 7, reinforcements for the Imperials show up-- probably bounty hunters or even Darth Vader. I'm working up some 5150 rules for Star Wars, I'll post them here when they're done.
I really need to work on some terrain. That table just looks sad...
I increased the font sizes and changed the fonts for the site's layout. I'm trying to make the site a little easier to read. It's lately struck me as somewhat difficult to read. If you have any opinions about it, let me know. Thanks.
P.S. Also, if you ever find you can't comment, just e-mail me. I use a spam blocker on comments, and I occaisionally blacklist stuff (like blogspot.com!) that I shouldn't, which may prevent you from posting. Every post has to be moderated by me before it appears on the site, but if it's actually rejected, you'll get a message saying so. Just e-mail me your comment, and I'll track down the problem. Eventually, I'll upgrade and change the comment URL so automated spam bots can't just post, and probably remove the blacklisting stuff altogether. I get a lot of spam on this site.
So, I was stepping away from setting the gaming table up for tomorrow night's Star Wars 5150 game, when I notice my dog, Bear. He's a twenty pound Schnauzer (or Schnoodle, the pound claimed). Both his front legs were bloody and wet!! He's had allergy problems lately, so I thought he had licked his legs to the point of being bloody. I got my wife out of bed (she had just went) since I thought I might need help with it...
Low and behold, Bear was COVERED in blood. Both forelegs and his snout, and his whole left side was matted with drying blood. I realize that he must have tangled with something outside, and I start checking for cuts. There's nothing obvious, so I carry him to the shower and procede to clean him. I still can't see anything, and I soaped him rather vigorously without any reaction. He LOVES to be toweled off after a bath, and was his usual self, covered up in the towel and rolling around. Huh. So, I'm figuring he came out on top.
At this point, my wife is calling from downstairs. The whole couch is bloody. He obviously laid there cleaning himself for a while. Now, bear in mind that my wife has gotten on to me many times for letting him in with dirty paws and him making a mess everywhere! So, naturally, my first reaction was to bust out laughing and say, "Boy, I sure am glad I didn't let him in!" She failed to be amused.
Anyway, I walked the yard with my flashlight and couldn't find anything. The yard was mowed today, so he might have eaten/rolled in something the lawn guy got, but I didn't see anything. There were no blood trails on the trees, so nothing got away that way. I'll have to go back out tomorrow during daylight and see what I can see.
I just got my order of Trident 40mm AWI from MSC today, and I have to say, these are some exceptionally beautiful figures. I wasn't crazy about British Grenadiers, as I mentioned, but those figures REALLY wowed me. I can't wait to start painting these up! You can bet I will post pictures as soon as I do!
So, I subjected my wife to her first viewing of MST3K last night. She didn't finish it, as she wanted to go to bed early. At 9:15! She claimed she was tired, but I know she was simply on the verge of laughing out loud and could no longer contain her stoney veneer! Ah, women. Can't live with 'em...pass the beer nuts.
I sent my last order for the year, for sixteen 40mm Trident Designs AWI figures from MSC, today, getting it in under my deadline for the last miniature purchases this year. I ordered another ten colonial militia, and six Grenadiers. I wasn't going to get Grenadiers, and I don't know when the Light Infantry is coming out, so I'll buy them now and if I get around to painting them before the end of the year, I'll have opponents I can play.
Note to miniatures manufacturers: Sending me free figures results in sales! So, you know, send me free figures, you bastards! May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman, Andy.
Muah hah hah!! Netflix has the MST3k Manos: Hand of Fate DVD in the mail. My wife has never seen MST3k before. She's going to HATE it! Muah hah hah!!
I've been on a bit of a binge lately, culminating in me blowing the last of my minis money on Star Wars miniatures. I don't even like Star Wars, but my son does, so there you go. I bought about 30 Stormtroopers, 60 rebels and all the Rebel Storm rares for under $100...that's not bad, until you consider, you know, that I don't even like Star Wars. Ah well, buying off eBay means I have the consolation of knowing that George Lucas did not get any of my money directly. Anyway, I have more miniatures than sense at this point, so I'm calling a halt at the end of September for the rest of 2006 (giving me just enough time to get a couple of last orders in...tee hee!) Moreso, since I have been feeling guilty for not reading anything much for the last few months, I hereby resolve to finish five books between now and the end of the year. So be it!
I have been tagged by Maksim of 6mm-Minis for the book meme. Sounds fun, so here goes:
1. Name one book that changed your life:
It sounds kind of callous or insensitive, but there is not one single book that I think has changed my life in any particular direction. Maybe I'm reading the wrong books. Perhaps the Bible, but that has always been there since a childhood, more of a pervasive influence than a real change.
2. One book you've read more than once:
Well, listened to more than once, as I have listened to the unabridged Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren three times and bought the book. This is simply the best historical book I have ever read. Factual yet still gripping, and giving detailed background and motivations to the actors. It's worth reading for the information it gives on Nasser alone. Unlike other histories where Nasser is a faceless opponent, Oren describes why he did what he did, and what his (stated) fears and hopes were. The Egyptian command meltdown is described in detail. This is definitely one of my favorite books.
3. One book that made you laugh:
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. It's been a long time since a read this, and I recall it being very amusing. I recently pulled it out from its hiding place and have it handy for an eventual reread.
4. One book that made you cry:
Well, the photo in King Leopold's Ghost of the father sitting on his porch next to the severed hand and foot of his five year old daughter really made me break down. It was one of those situations where I was studying the picture and just couldn't figure out what it was, and then read the caption which just jolted me. That is perhaps unfair as I never could bring myself to read the actual book after that.
What comes to mind next is Lassie Come Home, at the end of the book, when the poor Carraclaughs have tried to disguise Lassie and the wealthy rightful owner, who isn't fooled at all, is examining her feet and understands what she's been through, and then states, "This is not my dog." I was reading this in bed with the kids for the first time and it was all I could do not to just start sobbing!
5. One book you're currently reading:
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy. Interesting, but sometimes dry. If it makes the crying list, it will be because I just can't wade through it! Still, definitely worth the $3.00 I paid for it. There is a lot of information about what makes a country powerful or not. The primary points so far seem to be about relative power; e.g., England is more powerful in absolute terms now than at the height of the Empire, but is relatively weak compared to the USA; about economic progressiveness allowing countries to endure the financial costs of war longer than their more backwards opponents, and the simple fact of geographic location.
6. One book you wish you'd written:
Easy one, the Atrocity Archives by Charlie Stross. It's not just the book I wished I'd written, it's the one book I should have written. The guy's a computer nerd dealing with Cthulhu-related X-Files stuff. I'm a computer nerd who likes Cthulhu. It's got me written all over it!
7. One book you wish had never been written:
Well, there are easy ones like Mein Kampf. However, listening to A History of Warfare by John Keegan, he makes the case for the highly touted On War by von Clausewitz as having lead directly to World War I, from which World War II pretty much followed, so I'll tentatively (as I haven't really explored the issue any further) throw that out as possibility.
8. One book you'd want on a desert island:
Probably something like the SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea! Yuk yuk yuk!
9. One book you've been meaning to read:
One book?! I have as many books I've been meaning to read as books I have read! What currently stands out is City Fights: Selected Histories of Urban Combat from World War II to Vietnam by John Antal. It's been sitting face out on my bookshelf for a couple of months now, but I have been spending more time painting miniatures lately than reading. I was thinking that, as well as simply being interesting and informative, it might give some ideas for miniature gaming.
10. Tag other people:
Nah. Not many people read this site anyway! And if you do, and you find this interesting, consider yourself TAGGED.
I've been meaning to do this for a while, and list the miniature gaming groups in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Yankee Peddler: Probably the oldest group around, having been around over twenty years. They are a dues-based club ($20/mo, I believe, although it used to be negotiable based on how often you play down there) as they have their own gaming space in the rear of a strip mall. There is a large 8'x12' or so table, and a smaller one. They play a lot of Warhammer, and typically run historical games every other weekend. They often play home-brew Colonial rules, as well as 15mm Johnny Reb 2, 25mm AWI and Napoleonics (incl. Egypt), 15mm Limeys and Slimeys and others. There are also some RPG games. Games are usually run on Saturday mornings. I was a member for a while, but as my kids got older, I just couldn't make Saturday mornings anymore.
For lack of a better name, the MoA group is a group of guys I play with which includes Bob Bryant, author of Might of Arms. Mostly historical, our games include 15mm MoA (obviously), 15mm Battlefront WW2, 25mm TSATF Boer War, Piquet: Field of Battle, home rules, board games and others. We mostly play on Friday nights at somebody's house.
There is the Barony in Oak Ridge, an old staple which had closed down but has now returned, better than before (or so I've heard-- I haven't actually made it up there yet). There is Games Workshop, WarMachine and probably Hordes among other things.
They don't mention it on their website, but Sci-Fi City opened up a store in East Town Mall or whatever it is called now (Knoxville Center Mall? East Knoxville near I-40/I-640 intersection). The rumor I've heard is a guy who ran WarMachine out at the Barony is running it at Sci-Fi City now.
You can also check out KnoxGamers for the local gaming scene, although there is more focus on RPGs there. There is also the Atomic City Gaming League for gaming in Oak Ridge.
I've run two Xeno (i.e., Aliens) battles solo today with about 10 humans and about 50 bugs (plus a few dinos as I started rolling high!).
The first game, 10 militia were trying to find out why a village had stopped transmitting. Their mission basically to search the four buildings on the table and withdraw. They searched three buildings in a row with nothing, then got three Xeno rolls in a row for something like 50 Xenos charging out of the darkness. The last three went down hard though, their backs to a wall, but in the end, no match for the numbers.
In the next game, ten soldiers came in for what seemed like a cakewalk. They breezed through the first batch of Xenos and it looked like they would do the same for the second, but one Xeno managed to make it into charge distance! This made a squad of soldiers Runaway, who sought refuge in a building-- occupied by 4 Xenos who immediately got a turn. Scratch squad one. The second squad tried to fall back, but couldn't generate enough firepower and got sliced up.
I'd never heard of ERM's Corporate World line, but I like them, especially the Assassins and Slicks.
Miniatures Service Center recently ran a special giving away a free Trident "Battle Road" 40mm AWI figure. I got one, and really like it. I have generally pooh-poohed 40mm as yet another scale, but I have been thinking about it for skirmish lately. I like the figure. I'm going to buy probably about 10 figures per side and run some skirmish games with them. $3.50 is about on par with good 28mm nowadays, and these have more visible detail and will probably be easier to paint and look better on the table. So, for detailed, small scale skirmish, 40mm may just be the way to go!
Looks like Magnificent Egos is planning to produce the full line of Clan Wars miniatures. Best of luck to them. I just b