Went to Ocean City, MD (my favorite place on Earth) this past weekend. Lousy time for the most part (cold, windy weather and had to take my oldest son to the ER), but, I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy Friday afternoon. I got the book as a gift from my mom last Christmas, but with all of the other dumb stuff that I do I hadn't read it. Actually, I also got Six Frigates from my Uncle, and I haven't read that yet either. AND, I got World War Z the Christmas BEFORE last, and I haven't read THAT yet either. But I will.
Anyway, I finished The Road Saturday afternoon. Granted, it's only 250 pages, but I just couldn't stop reading it. Obviously I did stop reading to do stuff like take care of my children, but even then the book occupied my mind.
A very disturbing and upsetting read. However, very touching too. I recommended it to a friend of mine who is Mormon, and he half-jokingly asked if it was uplifting to the spirit. I said it certainly was (and it is).
So now my most anticipated movie is The Road which is scheduled for limited release in November. I couldn't believe it when I searched the Web for the book title when I got home in order to read others' opinions of the book that there was a film version coming out. It's funny, but the last movie I saw was No Country for Old Men, based on another of McCarthy's books.
Anyway, highly recommended.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
On the Beach
My family and I are taking a little vacation in Ocean City MD this weekend. Right now our youngest is asleep and the other two are in the room next door with their Grandmother. So, since it's nice and quiet I decided to write an entry.
In the past month I seem to have more free time. For one thing, the baby is steadily sleeping through the night. Also, school has started which means an early bed time for the oldest. For one reason or another, it just feels that the initial storm of activity that hit us after the baby was born is starting to subside and we are getting into a nice routine.
With this I've been able to do some things that I had put on hold since Spring. I've started to reduce the pile of unread comic books in my den. I also have picked back up with my subscriptions through Discount Comic Book Service (highly recommended). I even bought some back issues, namely all of the Secret Invasion books released so far.
Finally finished my terrain board. Right now I have a Zamundan village set up on it, and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. I'm not so much proud of my modeling skills, I'm just glad I finally finished it.
As for gaming, I haven't played a miniatures game since Historicon. However, I have continued to play board games and Hammer of the Scots is our favorite. I've got a copy of the reprint of The Napoleonic Wars and I'm looking forward to giving that a try. I admit that I haven't felt like trying any new games lately. The other day we played Tannhauser, which seems like a pretty fun game and I love the setting, but my heart really wasn't in it. Then we played Robo Rally and I can see how it could be a really fun time, but again I just wasn't into it. Then we decided to play Hammer of the Scots and it was awesome as usual. I think since I've been stressed around the house lately I just don't feel like trying new things. Hammer feels both comfortable since I know the rules but intriguing since there's so many different strategies to implement.
As for painting miniatures I picked up my German tanks that I ordered through a friend of mine from Maryland. I'm going to experiment using the Army Painter spray paint and shade and see how they turn out using those. Plus I'll need more German infantry to support them.
I've even had time to play video/computer games, something I haven't done with any frequency since maybe last April or so. Unfortunately, my Xbox 360 broke and I had to send if off to Microsoft to be fixed. My wife gave me Spore for our anniversary and I'm looking forward to installing that when we get home. (In case you're wondering I got her a vintage Return of the Jedi Ewok Village playset)
Well, I'm wasted. I'll take some photos of my terrain board and post them next week.
In the past month I seem to have more free time. For one thing, the baby is steadily sleeping through the night. Also, school has started which means an early bed time for the oldest. For one reason or another, it just feels that the initial storm of activity that hit us after the baby was born is starting to subside and we are getting into a nice routine.
With this I've been able to do some things that I had put on hold since Spring. I've started to reduce the pile of unread comic books in my den. I also have picked back up with my subscriptions through Discount Comic Book Service (highly recommended). I even bought some back issues, namely all of the Secret Invasion books released so far.
Finally finished my terrain board. Right now I have a Zamundan village set up on it, and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. I'm not so much proud of my modeling skills, I'm just glad I finally finished it.
As for gaming, I haven't played a miniatures game since Historicon. However, I have continued to play board games and Hammer of the Scots is our favorite. I've got a copy of the reprint of The Napoleonic Wars and I'm looking forward to giving that a try. I admit that I haven't felt like trying any new games lately. The other day we played Tannhauser, which seems like a pretty fun game and I love the setting, but my heart really wasn't in it. Then we played Robo Rally and I can see how it could be a really fun time, but again I just wasn't into it. Then we decided to play Hammer of the Scots and it was awesome as usual. I think since I've been stressed around the house lately I just don't feel like trying new things. Hammer feels both comfortable since I know the rules but intriguing since there's so many different strategies to implement.
As for painting miniatures I picked up my German tanks that I ordered through a friend of mine from Maryland. I'm going to experiment using the Army Painter spray paint and shade and see how they turn out using those. Plus I'll need more German infantry to support them.
I've even had time to play video/computer games, something I haven't done with any frequency since maybe last April or so. Unfortunately, my Xbox 360 broke and I had to send if off to Microsoft to be fixed. My wife gave me Spore for our anniversary and I'm looking forward to installing that when we get home. (In case you're wondering I got her a vintage Return of the Jedi Ewok Village playset)
Well, I'm wasted. I'll take some photos of my terrain board and post them next week.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Assembly Point
I attended Assembly Point in Glen Burnie, MD this past Saturday. This is a local con put on by my wargaming club, The Army of Central Maryland. It was a pretty fun time. My buddy and I brought some board games with us and at first it was just him and I playing Hammer of the Scots. After that though we got a 5 player game of Shadows Over Camelot going and it was a blast. I finally got to be the traitor and it was all I had anticiapted it to be.
There were some pretty nice looking miniatures games going on, and there was a very well supported Flames of War tourney as well.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay long and we headed home after we finished Shadows. Hopefully they will run this con again next year.
There were some pretty nice looking miniatures games going on, and there was a very well supported Flames of War tourney as well.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay long and we headed home after we finished Shadows. Hopefully they will run this con again next year.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Terrain Board
After using nothing but cloths for years I decided to make a terrain board from polystyrene. Nothing fancy, I bought a 4X8 sheet of the stuff from Home Depot, and painted it with Kilz to start. Followed that with a coat of textured paint, and then painted brown over that. Finished it up by dry-brushing a very light tan over the brown. I have to say it looks pretty cool, and if definitely looks a lot better than using a piece of felt.
Next up I'm going to make some hills using the same technique, and after that I plan on making another terrain board. The new one will be made to look like grassland.
I'll post some pics later.
Next up I'm going to make some hills using the same technique, and after that I plan on making another terrain board. The new one will be made to look like grassland.
I'll post some pics later.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
After Action Report
As promised months ago, here's a little description of my modern Africa game that I ran for the Army of Central Maryland.
To begin with, after some solo play-testing I modified the game as follows: I placed the Zamundan rebel compound closer to the center of the table and started all of the rebels inside the buildings. I found that if the American/British Humvee column had to travel from one end of the table to the other, and if some of the rebels were allowed to start the game outside the buildings behind their barricades the Humvees would just get shot up too much.
So at the beginning of the game one AH-6 Little Bird carrying 4 Delta operators and one UH-60 Blackhawk carrying 8 US Army paras flew towards the compound while the Humvees rolled up the road in the same direction. The Zamundans held their positions inside the buildings, wishing to avoid being targeted by the coalition's well-armed helos. The Little Bird landed on the roof of the target building (they were given intelligence before the game revealing the location of the rebel leader they were supposed to capture) while the airborne inside the Blackhawk roped down towards the deck. Unfortunately, one of them lost his grip on the rope and fell. At this time the Zamundans in the target building emerged and opened fire on the paras, which were hard pressed trying to form up and drag their wounded buddy to cover.
Things got worse for the Americans as they suffered another casualty and were out of the game for a few turns, unable to support the Delta on the roof. Said Delta were exchanging some fire with another group of Zamundans who had come out of the target building. Both sides got pinning results on the other, but the Deltas easily recovered while the Zamundans could not. However, disaster struck the coalition when another group of Zamandans who had been moving among some crates in the middle of the compound opened up on the Deltas with their AK-47's and wiped all of the American elite counter-terrorists!
From there on out it was a tough road for the coalition forces. While they still had their airborne troops and a number of British SAS who had ridden to battle in the Humvee column, they were out of position as by now the Russian APC had arrived to rescue the Zamundan rebel leader. The Deltas had been the only troops close enough to stop him from making a dash to his former communist saviors, but they were all casualties. So, Papa Booya escaped, victory to the Zamundans.
A pretty clear cut victory, I might add. The squad of Russians the Zamundan players had access to didn't even have to fire a shot.
Obviously I have to count this game as another play-test, but I won't take anything away from the Zamundans who played a good game. Maybe the other side should have gotten the airborne and SAS into position first before the Delta landed and assaulted the building. As it was they were exposed and paid for this mistake with their lead lives.
One thing I will change (maybe) is that I will allow the Delta guys to blow through the roof of the building they land on. We'll see.
Anyhow, everyone seemed to have fun and hopefully I will run the game again at Fall In.
To begin with, after some solo play-testing I modified the game as follows: I placed the Zamundan rebel compound closer to the center of the table and started all of the rebels inside the buildings. I found that if the American/British Humvee column had to travel from one end of the table to the other, and if some of the rebels were allowed to start the game outside the buildings behind their barricades the Humvees would just get shot up too much.
So at the beginning of the game one AH-6 Little Bird carrying 4 Delta operators and one UH-60 Blackhawk carrying 8 US Army paras flew towards the compound while the Humvees rolled up the road in the same direction. The Zamundans held their positions inside the buildings, wishing to avoid being targeted by the coalition's well-armed helos. The Little Bird landed on the roof of the target building (they were given intelligence before the game revealing the location of the rebel leader they were supposed to capture) while the airborne inside the Blackhawk roped down towards the deck. Unfortunately, one of them lost his grip on the rope and fell. At this time the Zamundans in the target building emerged and opened fire on the paras, which were hard pressed trying to form up and drag their wounded buddy to cover.
Things got worse for the Americans as they suffered another casualty and were out of the game for a few turns, unable to support the Delta on the roof. Said Delta were exchanging some fire with another group of Zamundans who had come out of the target building. Both sides got pinning results on the other, but the Deltas easily recovered while the Zamundans could not. However, disaster struck the coalition when another group of Zamandans who had been moving among some crates in the middle of the compound opened up on the Deltas with their AK-47's and wiped all of the American elite counter-terrorists!
From there on out it was a tough road for the coalition forces. While they still had their airborne troops and a number of British SAS who had ridden to battle in the Humvee column, they were out of position as by now the Russian APC had arrived to rescue the Zamundan rebel leader. The Deltas had been the only troops close enough to stop him from making a dash to his former communist saviors, but they were all casualties. So, Papa Booya escaped, victory to the Zamundans.
A pretty clear cut victory, I might add. The squad of Russians the Zamundan players had access to didn't even have to fire a shot.
Obviously I have to count this game as another play-test, but I won't take anything away from the Zamundans who played a good game. Maybe the other side should have gotten the airborne and SAS into position first before the Delta landed and assaulted the building. As it was they were exposed and paid for this mistake with their lead lives.
One thing I will change (maybe) is that I will allow the Delta guys to blow through the roof of the building they land on. We'll see.
Anyhow, everyone seemed to have fun and hopefully I will run the game again at Fall In.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Lead and Cardboard Volume 2
Attending Historicon + new baby sleeping through the night = return to gaming!
Actually I've been gaming a lot, what I haven't been doing is posting here or painting.
So obviously here's a post and in the basement I've got 20 WW 2 German 15mm figures being painted. Once finished they will join the ranks of the storied Herman Goring division.
But like I said I've been doing lots of gaming. My buddy and I have played about 6 games of Hammer of the Scots and it's become one of our favorite games. We also tried Columbia Games' Liberty but were less impressed with it. We've got a number of Columbia's block games waiting to be played, but we're the most excited about their new one Wars of the Roses.
I finally played one of my most anticipated games the other night: Die Macher. Loved it. Admittedly a game's theme is very important to me and there's something about trying to win German political elections that I find fascinating. Even if the theme doesn't excite you like it does me, I think this game has a lot to offer. It's got two auction phases! What more could you ask for! I'm going to try and set up a five player game in the near future. We only had three the other night.
My other future plans include painting up more German infantry and armor along with building some terrain boards. I also plan on collecting and painting a Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Warhammer was the first miniatures game I ever played, and for years the only one. I played Orcs and Goblins, mainly because the boxed set I bought came with them and the Elves, and my friend wanted to be the Elves. But I always thought the Skaven were the coolest army, but I was too poor to buy all those models. So after listening to the Podhammer podcast (highly recommended) I was itching to get back into Warhammer (haven't played in 10 years) and I decided to buy the Skaven army I always wanted. Ok, I've only bought one boxed set so far, but I figure that's a start.
Actually I've been gaming a lot, what I haven't been doing is posting here or painting.
So obviously here's a post and in the basement I've got 20 WW 2 German 15mm figures being painted. Once finished they will join the ranks of the storied Herman Goring division.
But like I said I've been doing lots of gaming. My buddy and I have played about 6 games of Hammer of the Scots and it's become one of our favorite games. We also tried Columbia Games' Liberty but were less impressed with it. We've got a number of Columbia's block games waiting to be played, but we're the most excited about their new one Wars of the Roses.
I finally played one of my most anticipated games the other night: Die Macher. Loved it. Admittedly a game's theme is very important to me and there's something about trying to win German political elections that I find fascinating. Even if the theme doesn't excite you like it does me, I think this game has a lot to offer. It's got two auction phases! What more could you ask for! I'm going to try and set up a five player game in the near future. We only had three the other night.
My other future plans include painting up more German infantry and armor along with building some terrain boards. I also plan on collecting and painting a Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Warhammer was the first miniatures game I ever played, and for years the only one. I played Orcs and Goblins, mainly because the boxed set I bought came with them and the Elves, and my friend wanted to be the Elves. But I always thought the Skaven were the coolest army, but I was too poor to buy all those models. So after listening to the Podhammer podcast (highly recommended) I was itching to get back into Warhammer (haven't played in 10 years) and I decided to buy the Skaven army I always wanted. Ok, I've only bought one boxed set so far, but I figure that's a start.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Nice Pretty Boxes
I haven't had the time or inclination to post for awhile, but I have been gaming. Haven't done any miniature painting lately, though I have some 15mm German armor on the way.
I'm going to paste below an email I sent to some friends of mine on the topic of board games vs miniatures games.
"Obviously miniatures and board games have their respective pros and cons. I think what makes me have the opinion that board games are better than miniature games is that when I play a board game I am more likely to have fun than when playing a miniatures game. Of course now you all are saying no shit Sherlock! So let me explain."
"Both board games and miniature games have an equal potential for enjoyment. It's just easier for a board game to reach that potential. There's a lot more that can go wrong with playing a miniatures game. And a lot of what can go wrong is tied up in the fact that who you are playing with can make or break a game. I really like Command Decision, but I doubt I will play it at a convention anymore. I played in a CD game at the last Fall In, and the game as far as the scenario and miniatures went was fantastic. But I got stuck playing with someone who probably should be committed to an institution and it's one of the worst times I've ever had playing at a con. At the same Fall In I played in a Russian Civil War game that had beautiful miniatures and used a pretty cool set of rules that I had never heard of. Should have been a great game but I was sitting between two jackasses. The guy on the right kept doing dumb shit (which I didn't really mind) and the asshole on my left kept getting mad about it (which I did mind)."
"So great miniatures games can be ruined by the numbskulls you have to play with. It seems the best times I've had playing games is when we all play together. Case in point the Carnage and Glory game at the same Fall In when me and Kevin were on one side and John and Scott were on the other."
"Obviously a game where there are flaws in the rules/scenario/playtesting/figures/general preparation isn't going to be that good."
"Board games don't suffer from these problems since you generally don't play on the same side as any of the other players. And a good game has been playtested and refined before you play it."
"And they come in such nice pretty boxes."
I'm going to paste below an email I sent to some friends of mine on the topic of board games vs miniatures games.
"Obviously miniatures and board games have their respective pros and cons. I think what makes me have the opinion that board games are better than miniature games is that when I play a board game I am more likely to have fun than when playing a miniatures game. Of course now you all are saying no shit Sherlock! So let me explain."
"Both board games and miniature games have an equal potential for enjoyment. It's just easier for a board game to reach that potential. There's a lot more that can go wrong with playing a miniatures game. And a lot of what can go wrong is tied up in the fact that who you are playing with can make or break a game. I really like Command Decision, but I doubt I will play it at a convention anymore. I played in a CD game at the last Fall In, and the game as far as the scenario and miniatures went was fantastic. But I got stuck playing with someone who probably should be committed to an institution and it's one of the worst times I've ever had playing at a con. At the same Fall In I played in a Russian Civil War game that had beautiful miniatures and used a pretty cool set of rules that I had never heard of. Should have been a great game but I was sitting between two jackasses. The guy on the right kept doing dumb shit (which I didn't really mind) and the asshole on my left kept getting mad about it (which I did mind)."
"So great miniatures games can be ruined by the numbskulls you have to play with. It seems the best times I've had playing games is when we all play together. Case in point the Carnage and Glory game at the same Fall In when me and Kevin were on one side and John and Scott were on the other."
"Obviously a game where there are flaws in the rules/scenario/playtesting/figures/general preparation isn't going to be that good."
"Board games don't suffer from these problems since you generally don't play on the same side as any of the other players. And a good game has been playtested and refined before you play it."
"And they come in such nice pretty boxes."
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