Vetcon AAR and Goodbyes

Time to go, 

But first, there's just enough time for a VetCon AAR.  But just barely.

VetCon AAR

VetCon is a medium sized convention held in Auburn California (about 30 mins from my place) over the Veteran's Day Weekend.  It ran from Thursday night to Sunday.  I was unable to attend Thursday night due to child illness but managed to tear myself away from my family bosom and responsibilities Friday onward.   VetCon tends to come at the perfect time to serve as a wrap up to my wargaming season, as I don't really get to play the rest of the year at all.  Thems the breaks.  

And surprisingly, VetCon turned out to be an expensive weekend. 

Friday morning, I played a game called Galactic Knights, which with a name like that, one would not be surprised, is a spaceship game.

Why?  because I like spaceships and have a space fleet myself and was curious about the rules.  

Turns out, I really liked the rules.  And after being told that you could in fact, make / design your own spaceships, I immediately ordered a copy. 

I was playing the brightly colored ships.
Whaddaya mean they're all brightly colored? 

Not many pics to show.  It's a space game; ships zoom around and we all make whooshing noises.  Here's a pic of the rulebook I ordered instead...

An old school feel about it.

I couldn't figure out how to get a PDF of the rules, so bought a hard copy from the makers called Monday Knight Productions.  Who seem to be selling things like it's 2010 with a website from 2000.    I'll start with the base rules and limit myself from buying any expansions just to get the 3 or 4 rules used for a particular faction.  

This might re-ignite my gone dormant flame for space combat...

remember these ships?  I had to go back 2 years to find a pic of my Starfleet.

which reminded me that the current system I use for space combat called Starmada, also was recently updated, and being the curious monkey that I am, got that one as well.  

So far 1 silly little convention game has cost me the price of 2 rulebooks.  At least I'll have the fun of the endless chore of comparing and contrasting the two systems and re-tinkering all the ship designs.

Honorable mention: while me and my buddy Mr. JW were playing spaceships by ourselves, lots of people next to use were playing this game, by Mr GM. 

Shown here being set up, before miniatures
A lovely 15mm set up, and lots of scratch built items.

Going further in rules exploration, I was excited on Saturday morning to try out a ruleset called Limeys and Slimeys.  A sailing game, which has interest to me because I also have a sailing fleet.  The was Game put on by Mr. NS.  

Some Awesome 15mm ships, with crew!

But in this case, I was spared the expense of buying the rules as I was not at all impressed by the them.  The game itself was fine and dandy, but I certainly did not leave wanting to play the rules ever again.  Too simplistic, too easy, and in a game of sailing ships the wind direction did not seem to matter.  And I know that sometimes you don't want to be bothered by wind direction but in a game of SAILING... I think it's a requirement.  

But speaking of sailing.  One of the more attractive elements of VetCon is it's unique Bring and Buy.  Here's how it works; all along the edges of the main room there are narrow tables.  At no additional expense, you stake out a little area of your own and place out items that you wish to sell under your name and number.  You can display your wares all weekend.  It's a fun system.  If someone wants something, they text you and you scurry over and make a deal.  Or they just shout out your name...

I'm usually immune to Bring and Buys as I have specific and unique tastes.  You should see my search history.  And as I'm not looking to start a new project, unless it's something that I currently have going on, I'm not interested.  

But I did happen to see this box...

Which is a box of 1/1200 Napoleonic naval,
which is the scale that I already own,
because they're the same exact same miniature line that I already own...
which I'm pretty sure closed up shop this year.
AND which are already painted...

So naturally I looked at the name at yelled out "BRIAN!  Where are ya?" to have Brian answer, "right here, 3 feet to your left.." and cash exchanged hands. He let these go at about $5 a ship which I thought was a good fair price.  

This might rekindle my dormant flame of Napoleonic sail gaming, as my fleet just doubled in size. 

My fleet of 1/1200 ships.
I figured I did a pic of the spaceships,
might as well do these too.
Had to dig them out of the waaaaay back of the garage.

Just a show off pic.
The ships are, rather pretty.
probably my best work.

Honorable mention: While I was goofing off at sea, Mr KV and Mr. CW put on a very cool looking game of Vietnam.

and I was all "great looking game, but does Vietnam really have big ol stone pillars like that?  I mean come on..."   Only to be told that Yes, it does and shown pictures to boot.  And I was suitably embarrassed and later cried in the bathroom. 

Lunch Saturday was spent with Dai from the The Lost and Damned and Stunted Blog as he was there attending the Bolt Action tournament.  We drank drinks, and forgot to take pics...He said he had fun in the BA tourney but I think secretly he was jealous of me playing a variety of games while he was stuck playing the same rules, with the same units, on boring terrain. 

Later in the afternoon I played in a game of Pikemen's Lament, but on by Mr. MS

Our job was to stop that convoy.

I'm not sure of the setting, as the 3 Musketeers made an appearance, but we were fighting Arabs.  Also possible that I had too many drinks with Dai and wasn't paying attention.  But it was a fun, simple game, and reminded me how the Rampant system is pretty robust.  But it cost me nothing as I already own Lion Rampant 2.  It's somewhere around here....

But it was around this time that I checked my email and saw that while in my absence from family life, the wife decided that she would Doordash dinner for everyone.  Seems the only one who can cook in our house is ME.  And here I was eating cold leftovers for dinner...

Late Saturday night I played in Mr Ix game of (something something I forget what) Scottish using Rank and File.  Which is a rule set that I really like, and own, so expense there...

The set up.  Ix did a great job using the "Felt draped over elevations" 
to make a nice table.

In this historical battle, the brave Scotts are lined up for war, while the Redcoats are marching onto the field.

The Brave Scotts.

Turns out it was a classic match up of the Scots being pretty good at melee with the redcoats were pretty good at shooting.  So on the windswept Moore with the rain clouds coming on the Scottish charged.

Everyone go charge!

It was a fun game.  I think I had a challenging bit because I was on the Scottish flank and had to fend off the redcoat cav, and I managed to hold them off long enough that my other Scottish bretheren could win in the center.  

My Go

Lastly, the games that I hosted.  On Friday night I hosted a Quar game, because why not and I didn't make these boards for nothing...6 players.  Here are a bunch of random pics..

The Best CW

 and on Sunday I hosted an ACW game featuring the combat around Barlow's Knoll.  Because it's been a while since I did anything civil war and I don't know if you know this about me, because I barely mention it, I don't like to harp on it, but I really like gaming the ACW.

The set up.
I made that hill especially for this scenario.
And a few more fields.

How is it that I STILL need more fences?

The CSA building up...

And the inevitable clash...

and during that game I got another email from Doordash that the wife ordered.  At least I knew that the kids were eating in my absence.  

Overall, the con was a good experience and a nice reminder that I like other things besides Quar.

Goodbyes

Where has the time gone?  is it time to pack up and go into winter quarters already?  That was a fun 11 months wasn't it?  

Why the break?  Mostly it's because I don't do a lot of hobby stuff over the next month and a half or even two months.  And mostly because I tend to like blogging more when there is an end to it.  Otherwise, it tends to drag on and on with no point, into an unending duration of a meaningless mass of webpages.  The internet lives forever but I don't.  and my fingers get tired of writing.

So, my online friends,  I'll be back next year (sometime).  

That's me!

 

Het Lookit!

The full rules for Clash of Rhyfles is finally out...

and there on Page 4, is my name...

That's Me!
(I wonder who those other people are..)

It's kinda fun to see your name in print.   I've had my name in print before in Psychology Articles... as one of the authors mind you. not one of the subjects.  But this is for something that Actually Matters and is fun.

This is my first experience with being a playtester, so I don't have anything to compare it to.  I think I wormed my way into Official-ness just by being a persistent but polite pest to the rules author.  A combination of being available and eager when the rules were being developed anyway.  I didn't find it onerous in any way.  How hard is it to spout off opinions about game mechanics while having zero responsibility about the final product?  Turns out, not hard at all.  

I'll flatter myself and say that I had some good ideas, mixed in with all my stinkers.  Thanks Zombiesmith for the good experience.  

Now that the main rulebook is done, what's next?  I was invited to be contributor to other projects that Zombiesmith has in the works.  Though, I don't know if it's more like "Dream Team Assemble!" or "Cheap Help is Hard it Find and We'll Take What We Can get!"   

Thanks for Reading.

Double Thanks for Writing a Comment.

Till Next time.

A Year of Hobby Expense Report

Where was I?
no sooner did I announce to the WORLD that I was back to blogging when I was stuck down by boredom and sickness and totally lost momentum.  

Mostly sickness, mostly pneumonia.  

No matter.  I'm back above ground now, like new sprouts pushing up in a new year. And our parasocial relationship can stand the break.

But still just as just as bored.  

Now let's talk money.

Hobby Expense Report

Alternative title: Holy Sh-  How Much???!! 

Back in January of last year I had the idea that it'd be interesting (and not at all scary) to track how much money I spent on hobby stuff throughout the year.  Kinda like a New Years Resolution.  But unlike those other resolutions like diet and exercise and being nice to my children, I actually did it.  

The rules were simple: doesn't matter what was purchased, but if it was purchased for the purpose of hobby-ness then it made the list.  If the item has other uses that's all well and good, but if I got it in the first place because it was a hobby need, then hobby purchase it was.  NEED say I.  Like breathing and water.

Here is the of purchases with the initial organization just the sequence in time as I purchased things throughout the year.  

-$20 bouncy balls
-$16 storage tubs
-$70 more paint pens
-$68 more Quar Miniatures
-$360 more Wooden Wars
-$30 Hot Lead and Cold Steel ACW rules
-$45 Bolt Action 2nd Edition rules
-$30 Drop cloth
-$30 House paint 
-$60 Quar tractors
-$95 plastic Quar Miniatures 
-$50 Army painter dark-dip
-$47 More Quar Miniatures
-$134 Proxxon Hot Wire foam cutter.
-$17 paint brushes
-$17 balsa wood stripper
-$10 Balsa wood sheets
-$78 XPS foam
-$78 lumber
-$58 Shifting Lands Guider Pro (MDF fence for the Proxxon)
-$20 Spackle and Liquid Nails
-$20 Craft sticks
-$38 Magnetic miniature bases
-$7 Coffee stir sticks
-$25 Hydrocal plaster
-$50 Bolt Action V3 rules 
-$28 storage tub / metal sheet
-$50 more Quar Miniature
-$300 Pacificon convention
-$15 spray glue
-$20 coffee grounds
-$300 Army Painter paint set
-$72 More Quar Miniatures
-$25 Vetcon
-$40 resin fences 
-$60 Midgard heroic battle Rules
-$105 terrain making scenics from Scenic express (flock and stuff) 

And not to bury the lead, the grand total is $2,410.  

Which I am not sure how I feel about.  It's definitely more than I thought it would be at the beginning of the year (about 150% more than initial estimate) but less than a Disneyland vacation for the family. I'm sure I missed a few things here and there. I don't see spray primer on that list and I'm pretty sure I bought a can of Krylon matte Black spray primer sometime.  Or did I? 

Kinda shows that if I just stopped buying stuff for a year and just painted what I had, I could have saved a not insignificant amount of money. 

Now that I have data, I can do my best impression of Johnathan Freitag and do some maths and analytics.  or it is data?  I never know if it's data like Dah-tah or if it's data like Day-tah.  

here are some broad categories:

Money spent on....

Miniatures:

Quar: $392

Wooden Wars; $360

Rulebooks:  $185 (4 total)

Paints: $350 

Attending Conventions:  $325

Proxxon Cutter and accessories: $192

Terrain Supplies (including the trench boards):  $418.

I could go into more details I guess, but it's doesn't seem all that interesting to actually do so.  

And I have no idea if this represents a typical year of my hobby spending or maybe I was a spendthrift or maybe, even, I was incredibly restrained.  

So I'll do it again this year.  

Like last year I'll keep a little tally going on the right side of the blog.  

And then maybe next year there'll be more to talk about.  This post is just convenient online storage.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Resume!

 

New year, new season. same boring blog. 

Is January almost over already?  Damn, that seemed to go fast, but somehow, wasn't long enough maybe? Depends on how you feel about boring wargaming blogs. I know right?  I'm not sure I like them either.

I don't do blogging over the winter.  I get busy and frankly, I just lose the vibe. It's like having seasonal affective disorder but only applied to miniature wargaming.  

But winter is over.  mostly over.  It's over here in California.  Time to rejoin the blogging world and shake off this malaise.    

I'm sure someone, somewhere, while they were unable to sleep one night due to having caffeine too late in the day wondered to themselves.. 'I wonder what that Stew guy is up to, I wish he would post something so I could chuckle at his stupid jokes.  And then he can comment on my blog and we can be the bestest blogging buddies again."  "I mean, as long as it's not still those lame Anteater dudes."

Well!  Here I am again! Whoohoo!  and by 'lame anteater dudes' you meant "awesome Quar." 

And it is more awesome Quar.  See,s like you get a litle good and a little bad.

It's like you rolled a 6/1 on the random outcome table.  

And's that a joke that only Quar players will get, if that. so, eat it.

Quar

I continue to be invested in Quar.  Not only because I like the rules and the miniatures (and because I'm a super slow painter and builder and in general it takes me forever to do anything), but ALSO; because I've somehow gotten myself involved as something like a play tester, or like a promoter, or a like junior volunteer assistant developer looking for college credit.  It's my first time interacting with a miniature wargame as something other than just a consumer.

And it's kinda cool.  

I don't expect to get anything out of it other than my name in the acknowledgments paragraph in the introduction.  Maybe it could be Stewart "really cool nickname" Blain.  

Over the winter break I painted exactly 6 miniatures:

I painted two farmers and some livestock.
The green things are supposed to be some sort of fluffy pig.
The other is obviously some sort of giant beetle.  

And two armed civilian dudes.
technically these are "partisans" but I'll likely use them as armed farm hands.
which is kinda the same thing, I guess.
I'm rather proud of Gilligan hat.

And to start off my wargaming season, the other weekend I had a small game at my house to play test some stuff.  It was last minute, and in the sad commentary of my life I emailed like 8 people just to have 1 be available.  So it is.  I guess I can count myself lucky that I had 8 people to even ask.

Table Set Up:

Two squads of crusaders in the road being ambushed.

Left and Right,
Left an' Rght,
march, march, march.

random in game pics;

All Caught Up

And there ya go.  Now we all caught up with each other.  

Told ya it was boring.  Probably put that guy who drank too much caffeine too late in the day right to sleep.  At least I can say I did some sort of public service. 

Welcome back to the blog of Terrible Loss.  I'll go check out what's been up on your not terrible blogs.  

Mainly Vet Con AAR, mainly Quar

 (scratching my head and thinking)

 "What was I doing again?"   "Oh yeah!  Writing the best damn wargaming blog on the internet!"

Except for all those other ones, which are equally as good.

Fine.  They're BETTER even.  Go read all those why don't you.  OH you do?  Well, good, you should.

Good blogs probably wouldn't go a whole month without posting, except of course when they do.  Like I just did.  Here's a mega update, but mainly a Vet Con AAR, and mainly Quar. 

 VET CON AAR

Every time I go to a convention, I think I should try to be a good blogger and take pics of ALL the games.  I start off well enough, but then I get distracted and stop.  Unless I'm standing right there next to it then I don't see or hear it, just like small dogs and miracles.    

Vet con ran Friday night through Sunday, and that lends itself to a fine structure...

FRIDAY:

Broke free early on the Friday afternoon from my home life, and safe in the knowledge that my in-laws had come town to help my wife with the children, I prepared for a holiday weekend of gaming with no responsibilities other than driving safely (and I barely did that).

I had brought my Quar stuff for a Friday game but the nice man I was supposed to play could NOT break away from his own responsibilities, so instead I jumped in a game of Gunfighters Ball (a Cowboy game) hosted by the Mr. DP who was running the con... 

along with socializing and saying hello to people, I'm a regular chatty Cathy at a wargame convention.

My two bandits making off with a wagon

I named myself the King of the Banditos as my two bandits actually stole a wagon and got it off the table while everyone else was getting shot or throwing dynamite and getting themselves blown up.

Gunfighter's Ball is a fun game.  When you get shot you draw a damage card, and I swear every other card is getting shot in the ass or balls.

SATURDAY:

Most of Saturday was spent playing a Bolt Action 3rd edition tournament.  3 games, each about 2.5 hours.  Tournaments can be nerve racking if one trying to do well.  Fortunately for me this was not the case as I just wanted to learn the game better.  It was nerve racking for me because I did not have a 3rd edition rulebook nor a 28mm WWII army.  I didn't have the rules because despite ordering them in JULY from Osprey. and them being released in September, apparently the books from Osprey were somehow delayed, and delayed again.  Even while I'm writing this sentence I still don't have my book. 

As for the army, I know all about how these WWII types operate and saddled up to one and said "Hi. My name is Stewart, and I'm you're new best friend.  SOOOoooo, got a spare army?"  And he did.  Mr. R kindly lent me a Soviet army that was very beginner friendly. 

In actual fact, I had arranged with the Organizer Mr. SM ahead of time to borrow an army.  That morning, he did have a spare army but also said "that man over there also has like 4 armies that he said people could borrow, try him."  Mr Said that it was nice for him because he had all these armies that hardly ever see the table, and it was nice to see them used.  I said, "well, as long as you understand that I'm one doing YOU a favor then we're all good."  No, I didn't say that for reals. 

Nothing says WWII like Hedgerows.
Hedgerows and machinegun noises.

The red bobbles are pins, so you can tell that I'm doing really well.

In my last game, I played Mr. SM and his British Commandos.

The BA tournament was super friendly, super fun, laid back.  Lot's of people were still learning the 3rd rules so I didn't stand out too much with all my nagging questions.  

And then, because it was too early to go home, I once again played a game of Gunfighters Ball in the same scenario.  I loudly announced that last game I was the King of the Banditos and to watch my example.  After lecturing everyone that no one should be throwing dynamite, the game began where I was the first cowboy shot dead.  

Strangely, all pictures of this game are lost. 

OTHER GAMES: 

Before we get on with Sunday, here are some pictures of other games that I did manage to photograph...

A 54mm WWII game that everyone seemed to enjoy

Star Wars

Some AWI

I know, it's such a lack luster effort.  There were others, LOTS others, I just didn't take pictures of them.  I'm just not naturally inclined to take a bunch of pictures unless it has something to do with me.  Because I selfish. I never share my french fries.  

Lots of pics of Sunday though, because on Sunday I hosted two games of Quar: Clash of Rhyfles.

Sunday is Quar day

To refresh your memory as it's been a month, a Quar is a Humanoid Anteater-ish thing in WWI-ish tech.  Like so:

Some recently painted Quar.
Over exposed, as I was playing with the setting...

I set up a scenario for 5 players, where 3 payers would play the crusaders, and their job was to assault across a river and take the center ground of the two players playing the royalists.  The scenario ran in the morning through afternoon, and again late afternoon till evening.  

Table Set up.

Each player had a 300-ish point force of 11 miniatures (so 600 pts on defense vs 900 pts on attack). 

Just a closer look.

The game was just kinda but not really, but just barely; local enough tothe Developers of Quar miniatures and Rulebooks, so the guys who are Zombiesmith, Mr. JQ and Mr. AB, came up to have a look-see and have a chat.  Which was very flattering.  I mean for them, because how often do you get to meet a famous blogger like myself with an international blog read by a dozen people?  

I pretended not to be starstruck.  It's rare you get to meet the people who make the stuff that you enjoy so much.  Mr. JQ and Mr. AB were very nice and we go to get in some good chat when I wasn't distracted by actually having to run the game.  

Mr. JQ pinned a Crusader badge onto my collar.  It felt like being knighted.  

I didn't get any pictures of us together.  Which is unfortunate because it would have made me a very minor celebrity in some very small circles.  Very-very small circles, more like dots.  But still, my wife thought it was cool when I told her all about it.  Repeatedly.  

Some Cadier (Horse equivalent) are tethered by the bridge for some unknow reason.

Me in the purple shirt.
Pointing with intention.

The Coftyrans are defending the bridge.

In the evening game, One of the local players, Mr. NB, brought his newly painted 
Arnyaran faction to try out.  We swapped out one of my crusader forces for his force.
The Tractor (tank) was just for fun looks.

Two lone Royalists try to hold out.
Can you be lone if there are two of you?

Trying to get across the river

At one point, it felt like it was getting really late.  "Man, it feels late.  What time is it anyway?"  "6:30?!!"  "We all need to man up, my children aren't bed yet so I can't go home."  

Quar moving through the woods.

Some Crusaders trying out the bridge.
because crossing rivers is for suckers.
Why get your feet wet AND be shot at?

We were the last game to wrap up and we few players closed out the convention.  

So Vet Con was a great success.  Lots of fun, and in typical convention fashion you see a lot of people you seem to only see at conventions.  I made some new gaming friends, I sold everything I placed in the Bring and Buy so had enough cash to pay for all my drinks.  

Monday is Veteran's Day

Woke up early, put flowers on my father's grave who served 20 years in the navy, and then off to a parade.  My older children were marching in the local parade as part of Scouts.  It was cold, wet, and raining.  

Question: What does an almost middle aged, kinda out of shape, definitely hung over, father do in a cold, wet, and raining parade?

Answer:

He carries his 4 year old for 2 miles.
Not all heroes wear capes, but I bet they all have sore backs.

After we got home and put on warm dry clothes, my oldest son (6 years old) demanded that since I was gone all weekend playing games with other people that it was now his turn to play.  So out came his favorite game King of Toyko. 

Where he beat me three times.
He can barely read but he knows what ALL the cards do.

Thanks for reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment.
Till next time.