Incoming stuff! The lead Pile Cycle

 

Sing it!  (to the tune of Kung Fu Fighting)

"Everyone loves online shopping
Add to cart as fast as lightening
The wallet is slowly tightening 
My lead pile is certainly frightening."

Several purchases have crossed my doorway recently.  Everyone likes a little bit of "here's my haul."

Not my actual house.
Pic stolen from the internet for comedic effect.
Isn't it Hi-larious?

Incoming Stuff

I've had some Kickstarters arrive.  The first to show up was my new version of the board game Britannia by PSC.

I love this game to bits, so the purchase of it was a no-brainer for me.  Though its been several years since I played it last, and who knows when I'll be able to break in this new version.  It's essentially the same game as the old version rules-wise, but has cooler components and a new 2 player version; which might make it easier to get on the table as the proper game is a 4 player game that takes about 6 hours to play.  You might hear or read on the internet of people playing it at around 4 hours but they are lying.  Or they strapped themselves to the chairs with no food or bathroom breaks.  It's an awesome game, it just takes awhile to play.  

A closer look at the new components.

There are some crazy cool people who paint the miniatures for their board games,

but I am not one of them.

The other KS to arrive was the "Farms of Gettysburg" by Things From the Basement.  I pledged for these back in June of this year, and just assumed that every KS is a year wait; but I must of not been paying attention because but here they are!  That was a nice surprise.

These are 15mm MDF buildings based on actual buildings / farmsteads from the battle of Gettysburg; which I think is a pretty cool idea.  However in hindsight, I probably didn't need to get ALL of them, cause what am I gonna do with 13 farms?  Typical overspending of wargamers!  Who authorized such a transaction?!!  Let it rest, for now is not the time for recriminations, and blame can be assigned at a later date to all guilty parties.

Close up of the raw woods.

These are also way more detailed than I thought they would be, even more than the 28mm stuff from Sarissa that I got recently.  

I have long wanted to do some scenarios focused the first day of fighting over the rolling hills and ridges west of Gettysburg, though I've been distracted by other battlefields that are easier to construct. 

This will probably be the first that I assemble, as the Thompson was in a central location during the first day in the fight for Seminary Ridge, and later went on to serve as Lee's headquarters for the rest of the battle.  

Speaking of Seminary Ridge, What would Seminary Ridge be without the famous Lutheran Seminary?

What a monstrous hunk of resin!
My 18mm ACW troops at the bottom for a sense of scale.

I have long been looking for a 15mm Lutheran Seminary building but they are hard to find.  Go ahead, type it into a search engine and see what comes up, I dare you.   After coming up empty for months I finally found that Noble Knight Games had one in stock...that I immediately purchased.  I am a Kung Fu master at the speed that I can click add to cart.  

This thing is huge! It's the second biggest building I own in either 15mm or 28mm (yes, the 15mm Seminary is bigger than other 28mm buildings).  Such a large building on the table is certainly going to draw the eye as it towers over everything, so I'll have to be sure to paint it extra good.  Which will be a challenge because there a ton of little details on it. Like all those window frames, roof tiles, and the zillion bricks.... sounds like a good challenge for ACWary.  Mark your calendars!  ACWary is just 2a little over a month away!  What do you mean "What's an ACWary?"  For shame that you forgot this thing that I made up one time after drinking too much coffee way back in January... Here is a LINK to the post for a reminder.  

Tough I'm not a huge fan of these bushes sculpted onto the model.

And it doesn't quite sit flat which is annoying.  

Lead piles need a cycle to illustrate the way they are constantly renewing themselves.  There's a Water Cycle (Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, and Collection) a Rock Cycle (rocks go from Igneous to Sedimentary to Metaphoric) that serve as examples.  I know these things because Daughter #1 loves "The Magic School Bus Rides Again" on Netflix.   The Lead Pile Cycle can be something like:

Imaging: Wargamer imagines playing with a miniature army and how much fun it will be.

Purchasing: Wargamer buys the miniatures (lead pile grows).

Procrastinating: Miniatures sit for awhile as the wargamer gets distracted by other stuff

Painting: Miniatures are finally painted (lead pile shrinks).

Imagining: Wargamer imagines new additions to the miniature army and how much fun that will be...

and you get the point. I personally thought the addition of the Procrastinating step to be quite inspired.

So it will come as no surprise that after my unexpected hobbyathon where the AWI lead pile seriously dwindled to a mere few nude lead miniatures, that it was renewed with an order from Brigade Games.

And the cycle repeats itself.
Another 48 miniatures added to the lead pile.

The Long Winter

The end of the year is upon us and is the time where I usually get swamped with fun (or at least trying to make it fun) family stuff.  Gaming tends to cease (like it wasn't already due to the COVID) but spare time for the hobby side also tends to disappear.  I doubt I'll get much done of anything but that's the way it goes when your children are small.   So any future blog posts will have to heavy on the witty commentary and light the substance.  Least all the above shows that I have plenty of stuff just waiting for me.  

Plus there's a super important birthday in December that needs to be celebrated.  There's also Christmas. 

Have I mentioned my birthday is in December, really close to Christmas?  

But first!  Next week is Thanksgiving here in America.  Wishing everyone a SAFE and happy holiday.

Till next time.

-Stew