Interesting coincidence

I finally started painting my Splintered Light Romano-Britons this month. I also had a few old Ral Partha ogres on the table to finish. As luck would have it they were completed about the same time and went into the same box for the sealant spraying. As I set them out on the newspaper to begin, I moved them around a bit and decided that it might be fun to have a small game using both together.

Romano-Brit Cymbrogi

Yesterday I was browsing the miniatures page and came across this post. "25mm as 15mm giants"

Ogres

Interesting coincidence indeed.

Today I wrapped up some archers and skirmishers to go along with the cavalry. I'll be putting together a few small games later this week to try out my old Two Hour Wargames' Warrior Heroes rules. I'm anticipating that they will be short and bloody. Pictures and scenario write ups with stats will follow.

Blogger BS

Ok. For the past month I've been trying to leave a comment and the system just kicks it out. No email notification or record on my dashboard like there should be. It's something that seems to be happening to many blogs and Google is looking into it. Sorry if anyone has tried to leave comments and not been able to.

Historicon and the prep for it ate a lot of my time, so there haven't any games to post. Now regarding Historicon in Valley Forge...

I was pretty damned skeptical about going there. The vendor costs were prohibitive for an operation as small as mine is right now, so I went as a general attendee.  On Thursday I had a really hard time figuring out what to do with myself since I wasn't chained to a booth. I wandered, talked with people, looked at some of the really visually impressive games that Duke had set up and eventually found the club rooms.

*Gripe number one: the vendor/ general gaming area is a really circuitous, confusing walk from the club gaming rooms. Someone showed me the sneaky employee only way, but when I tried it myself I got lost and had to ask employees who didn't speak much English how get out. Twice.

I ended up playing a pick-up Napoleonics game of Volley and Bayonet that a friend of mine was running. My experiences with Napoleonics have not been very good. Could have been the game system, maybe it was the guy running it, or probably both. But... this was a blast! Thanks, Jake.

Friday morning was more of the same I-know-I-should-be-doing-something feeling for the first two hours. Again I wandered around aimlessly. Well, except for my purchase of the Volley and Bayonet rules. I sat in on Don Goddard's (Wee Sparky at TMP) beginner sculpting class. This was also a blast. The information was very well presented. Good tips, references and some hands on experience with the putty. If you are interested in sculpting or converting miniatures, I highly recommend sitting in on this class.

*Gripe number two: Concession food here sucks, the restaurants charge about 150% more than I'm used to paying for comparable food at Lancaster, the water fountains were all shut off and the water stations were few and far between.

I had food with me for lunches so the whole cost thing wasn't a big deal. Most evenings I went out for dinner. I can highly recommend their Lone Star, The Indian/ Pakistani place and the Irish pub. Prices were only slightly higher than Lancaster or eating out in Pittsburgh.

The rest of Friday was spent helping out with the jousting tournament and attending another seminar. The tournament was big fun for me, but I'm not sure about all of the English knights that were flying off of their horses due to a misunderstanding about critical hits. Be sure to ask Frank Sciulli the author of the rules, to add in Rod's "We Hate the English" variant when he publishes them.

The seminar was the Perry brothers. I was quite disappointed by it. They're fun to listen to, but the information was simply a quick slide show of making a 3 up sculpt for plastic miniatures, here's what we've done with Peter Jackson and here's a little teaser of what's in the works. It was good to put faces to the names of two of my sculpting heroes, but the seminar just wasn't what I was hoping.


Saturday was a blur. I met up with several clients throughout the day and delivered their commissions. I had long conversations with friends and played Hour of Glory in the evening with several other friends. This, too was an incredibly fun game. Thanks, Larry.

Sunday was strange not having to pack up and deal with last minute customers. I got to visit with friends and say leisurely good-byes instead of the usual farewells in passing while we load our vehicles.

My two gripes are minor and can be overcome with a bit of preparation and forethought. I really enjoyed the venue overall. It was cleaner than the Host. The staff everywhere I went was really helpful and courteous. The gaming areas were big and well lit. I found myself not missing the Host at all and will probably go as a vendor next year.


Bye for now.

Taking out the trash...

Rongar Darkhammer took a long swallow of his beer while he sat watching the goblin riff raff that had come in earlier. Usually the Ogre Bow was a decent place to drink. Tonight, however, it was filled with the raucous noise of goblin revelry. The bastards had come in about an hour earlier to blow off some steam and it seemed maybe even to celebrate some good fortune. He hadn't been paying complete attention to their childish antics, but he thought he had heard passing mention of a mine and kobolds in their conversation.

This information was merely of passing interest compared to the lowering level of beer in his mug. Rongar ordered a refill and waited for it to arrive. He glowered as the noise level increased. The goblins were now engaged in an inter-table competition which involved one goblin dancing on each table while the others tossed bits of food at them. There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the activity, but every now and then a cheer would go up, goblins would exchange places and the general fervor increased. The bar maid brought the refilled mug. Rongar paid with a bit of silver and drank about half in one gulp. He set the mug down deciding that if the beer continued to taste better each drink, the night wouldn't be a total loss.

His rising good cheer was doused by a wet plop and splash of beer on his face as a piece of pork rind dropped into his mug. Rongar's anger flared as quickly as his cheer had left. A low growl erupted as a bellow of rage. He gripped his heavy mug and charged the closest table of goblins. They scattered; one headed for the door, one ran to the pantry to hide and one jumped into the hearth attempting to climb up and out of the chimney.

There was a momentary pause as the remaining goblins and Rongar sized each other up. One goblin yelled, "Git em!" But he noticed the other two were busy stuffing their pockets with food and nuggets of ore and joined in.

Rongar advanced with grim purpose. "By the beards of my ancestors you'll pay for that beer thrice over."

The goblins decided three to one wasn't bad odds and attacked.

At first contact Rongar was swarmed, barely holding his ground as goblin fists scored multiple hits. His armor, sheer cussidness and good luck prevailed and in the next few moments he was able to disable the center goblin with a knee to the groin. The second fell as Rongar's mug smashed his shoulder. A back hand swipe caught the last in the temple dropping him with a ringing bong.

In the silence that followed, Rongar scooped up several of the nuggets and grabbed the gasping, groin holding goblin by the hair. "Now you'll be telling me where you found these, " he said.