San Antonio Muster, 25 July 2015

Some of the LSHM leadership have been organizing small mini-conventions to get people to try new games. Yesterday was the second time I participated.

I brought the 28mm LPE game out. Although the "con" only ran from 11am to 3pm, I was asked to run the game twice, so we went until 4:30.

I ran four players each time, French against Anglo-Brunswick. The games were bloodbaths, as LPE tends to be. I think the players really enjoyed themselves, as their was a lot of spirited mocking of each other and cheering at the dice.

Here are the best pics I could find. First, the table all set and ready to go:

Here I am helping the players work out a combat. The line of British flags in the foreground are Ray's beautiful Foundry figures.

Hmm. Again I'm pointing at toy soldiers.

And finally, the entire attending crowd gathered behind my game for a group shot.

New figures and preparing for San Antonio Muster on 25 July

I mentioned two painting services in my last post. The one that had the problem with my order has been quite understanding and is working to fix it. People make mistakes and they are even implementing an idea I gave them to prevent it happening again.

I said I would name the other painting service after I received some figures. I am VERY happy to introduce you to Nigel Billington's Paintedsolider.net. You may have seen Nigel's work on TheMiniaturesPage.com, where he posts as "de Ligne."

Nigel is working on my Eureka, Minden and Fife & Drum figures. Here are pictures of his work on Eureka Arquebusiers de Grassin and Minden Legion de Hainaut. He did not base them at my request, as I have found that different painters' work can be tied together in my collection by having the same basing style. I think you will agree that he has done a terrific job! I'm looking forward to the Saxons, Prussians, and Austrians he has now.

Sorry for the photography. I’m crap at it.

Legion de Hainaut:

Mounted Arquebusiers de Grassin:

These figures from Nigel are filling some holes in my SYW collection, namely light troops and Prussian cavalry. I have some ideas for a new campaign and hope to post about them later.

Reduction of the lead pile has been a goal of mine. No, I’m not painting them. I find painting to be an increasingly frustrating and unfulfilling endeavor. So I shipped off a truly enormous number of figures to Nigel and other services. I still have an embarrassingly large supply, but feel I am finally accomplishing something with figures that have been around for years.

Meanwhile I have been preparing for the LPE game that I will put on at our club’s mini-convention, San Antonio Muster, on 25 July. I have placed a number of orders for bases and basing material, but they will probably not arrive in time, so I will be using the figures as is. I should at least have the primered bases seen below painted to match Ray’s British bases. Here are a couple pictures of a game that Ray and I played while he was in town last week:

We played two quick games. I routed him as the French, then he ground me down and destroyed every last one of my units when I played British. But he only had a couple left himself. It reminded us both of how much fun we have playing it.

It will be fun to introduce new players to this game next Saturday.

Happy 4th of July!

I decided that I want to try blogging on a regular basis. So I decided that fortnightly seemed about right.

So...ooo...

What to write about?

I played a demo game of the new version of GW's Warhammer Fantasy Battles yesterday. Titled Age of Sigmar, it is the new game set in the post-Apocalyptic GW universe.

To me the game plays a lot like the GW Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, only without any interesting "fluff." My reaction was a definite, "Meh." The figures themselves show an amazing amount of detail--too bad the detail is on figures that are quite definitely of no interest to me.

Then I looked at the downloads to make old figures compatible with the new game. Umm...double meh.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but GW lost me a few years ago. I refer any reader that has made it this far to my old post on the blog Ray and I share:  Ten Years of Dabbling in Warhammer

I recently received a batch of painted figures from a service that I regularly use. Sadly, this batch was short 24 mounted figures, and the infantry suffered from several shortcomings. I am at least partially to blame, as I had become accustomed to a level of service that didn't require micromanaging by myself. Mea culpa.

On another front, though, I have contracted with a new painting service (which I will name later upon receipt of figures) in order to reduce my lead pile. The service is VERY knowledgeable and communication has been great. I hope to post pictures very soon.

The last thing I will mention today is a company that makes bases and movement trays. Shogun Miniatures is a great service.

Years ago, Ray and I agreed to base all of our 25/28mm figures on 20mm squares for foot and 25mm x 50mm bases for mounted. Then we use sabots or movement trays to work with different rule sets. This was one of the best decisions I've ever made in wargaming.

Shogun makes outstanding steel movement trays in a huge variety of sizes. They also have some very good magnetic bases. Please look them up and give them a try if you need anything like this. Tell them Ed from Texas referred you.

Cheers. Time to go try to keep the spaniels calm as the locals fire off a gazillion fireworks.