And then I

 Hello again. 

Ever take one of those writing classes in school where there was an exercise where a writing prompt would be provided, and you had to fill in the rest?  

I know, those are lame and were never fun.  But let's try it anyway, wargaming blog styles.

And Then I

was super annoyed because I had to skip out of playing remotely in Jonathan's Freitag's remote ACW game.  I had to skip out because my wife volunteered to host a baby shower at our place at the WORST possible timey given mine and JF's schedules.  It just became impossible. Now children that aren't even mine are ruining my wargaming.  And I was in need of a good ACW game.

Does it even count as an ACW game without me?!

yeah, I mean, of course it does.  

And Then I

had to take my actual children out of the house on the day of the baby shower for 6 hours.  Spending the day with your children is, in theory, not the end of the world.  It is a challenge to find activities that a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, and an 11-year-old can all do together.  

Plus, it was 100 degrees outside. 

In October.

So the usual ploy of packing a lunch and going to a park was off.  Instead, I cheated and did a bunch of indoor activities like Chuck e Cheese arcade, The Mall, a "Make your own slime lab" and spent a LOT of money.  

On basically nothing.  But the kids were tired at the end of the day, so I guess it bought me an easy bedtime routine.  

And then I

Went to a Gaming Convention.  On a Saturday I attended Conquest Avalon to host two miniature wargames.  I can say without reservation that I had the BEST miniature wargame of the con.

Because it was the only one.  This was a very small convention and centered on roleplaying and boardgames.  When I checked in the nice lady laughed and expressed "oh, I didn't know we had a miniature game."  So I had brought a miniature game to a roleplaying convention. 

I set the game up, another game of "This Quar's War: Clash of Rhyfles" for 4 players and waited...

Everyone there was super nice but not interested, kinda like I am when people talk about their pets.  And 10 mins after the game was supposed to start, I had no players, and was juuust about to start cleaning up, putting my phone down, when lightning struck, and 4 players arrived.  "We're here to play in your game."  Awesome.

Covering faces, because I forgot to ask...

other in game pics:

And it was kinda a great game.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, everyone had the right attitude, and the game is really just fun to play.

I was supposed to run the game again in the afternoon, but this time lightning did not strike twice, and 15 mins after the game was supposed to start, I was sitting there alone.  I packed it up.  I could have stuck around and found a game to play but I decided to go home early for extra hubby points. I'm low on hubby points anyway.

And Then I

played Quar again.  As I had missed the aforementioned remote game due to wife, I guilted her into another game day.  I arranged for the day after the convention game for some new friends and Quar fans to come over and play some more of This Quar's War.  Another 2vs2 game but this time I got to play.

yeah, it's all the same terrain. so what?

and it was a great day.  Once again the wife took the kids out so we mostly gamed in peace until they came home.  My wife also spent a bunch of money on the kids but at least it was on clothes.  

My gaming circle increased by 3 more dudes, and by 3 more dudes that like WW1-ish anteaters.  What are the odds? 

I'm really liking this game.  And it's kinda fun to go all in on something.  

And then I 

went crazy.  Super crazy.  And bought all new miniature paints.

There's like a brush taped on the outside of the box.
Thought that was funny

For a variety of reasons.  None of them really good by themselves but taken all TOGETHER, then maybe.  Overall, I wanted to start over.  And the price was good during Amazon Prime days.  

Still too expensive.  But we just spent all this money on children, and I just spent the last two weeks doing extra on call shifts, so maybe I get a treat.  

And maybe, just maybe, this will make painting easier and more enjoyable. 

And then I

ended the post.

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till Next Time.

Quar trench board (part 5) and trees

 Grahgl!

(that's the noise that I make when frustrated)

I've been frustrated a lot lately.  it's starting to hurt my throat.

And painting miniatures is so boring and dumb that I'd rather pull out my eye lashes.

So instead I'll make some terrain.  

Everybody loves terrain.  

and then everybody will love me.

In truth, I've painted enough Quar for a good 2vs2 or even 3vs2 games and it's a good time to switch over to terrain, to make the battlefield a little more This Quar's War instead of This Quar's American Civil War.  

F.O.U.C.s

Trees are an easy place to start.  Trees are definitely not frustrating.  Lots of the Quar artwork show special trees.  Not really alien trees, because they're obviously normal trees, but F.O.U.C.s.  That stands for Flora Of Unusual Colors.  So I Branched Out to create some trees of reds, purples, pinks. 

They came out Oak-kay.  Knot the best but Be-leaf-able.  

My wife thought they were pretty.  The idea is not to have whole forest of these, but to use them more like accent trees, spots of color.  Like hair highlights or frosted tips.

Clean

Building on my frustration is my hobby desk has gotten waaay to cluttered....

Embarrassing

I can never find anything.  Where did that glue go?  Where is that base?  Where is my sense of gratitude and contentment?!!!   Grahgl!

I'm especially mad at my paints.  I have this random collection of Vallejo paints that just grew haphazardly over the years.  The paints themselves are fine, but everything else about them has been annoying me lately.  It's hard to replace individual bottles as these are mostly sold in sets, unless you go out to a store thats tocks them but you necer know if they have the color you actually want but that means leaving the house and dealing with weather, people, and vicious animals.

I'm always trying to remember which color was used for that other's color highlight and why do I have 8 shades of brown with 2 that I never use.. and what's Iraqi Sand supposed to mean and what's this number system that doesn't make sense Grahgl

I feel like I need a new system of some sort.

But in the meantime I did the simple thing and cleaned / organized the desk. 

Better

Oh, that OTHER desk belongs to my wife for her hobbies.  It's also known as the Desk Where We Put Random Stuff.  

Trench Board

It's been a couple of weekends since I touched the This Quar's War Trench Terrain Boards (say that 5 times fast, don't bother, ya can't.)  I went to a con, I had a wedding anniversary (15 years), there was a child sleep over.  Anyway, I was able to dig them out fo the garage and complete the planking on the third board.

the last 2x4 board.
It goes well with the carpet.

The last stone staircase

The last bridge test fit.

The last trench redoubt

Well... Almost done

The arrow shows a place where I screwed up with the spackle and made a place where it was impossible to get little wooden sticks to... stick.  I'll have to think of something else to go there.  I'm open to ideas.  I also need to go back to school and learn more words.  

Here's all 3 of the boards together to make a 4x6 wargame table:

tah-dah

Which I admit is underwhelming.  Though I do take comfort in the Pink Panther giving me the thumbs up.  

The idea is that all the flat space will be used for scatter terrain and whatnot. These scatter pieces will  be from the existing collection or from items I've yet to make.  So far the best items I have are the ones in my imagination.  

Thanks for Reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till Next Time.