Fistful of Lead (FFoL) Review

 

I've got a Fistful for ya,

A Fistful of Opinions! 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this Terrible blog are made by an unqualified and self important person and are not to taken seriously.  While the writer is kinda clever and everyone always agrees is also good looking; he's a well meaning amateur at best and a crazy person with a computer at worse.

Fistful of Fun

Not least because you get to say "Fistful of (Blank)" over and over.

Fistful of Lead is by Wiley Games and has been around for awhile now, BUT! I only heard about it last year.  So just in case you haven't heard of it either, let me tell you that this is a FUN skirmish game.  I'm always on the look out for skirmish games that are simple enough to teach to people at a convention, have enough going on that they still require some thought, and good for around 4-6 players.  FFoL hits all those marks.  

Fistful of Lead started life as a cowboy / wild west game (hence the title. talk about a Fistful of cliches!) and then evolved into a generic skirmish game that can tweeked into this genre and that, and de-evolved into genre specific supplements.  More on that later. But the Core rules are the same across all the publications and once understood, can be used for fun in anything.

Fitful of Miniatures

A core force in FFoL is made up of 5 miniatures.  This of course can be moved up or down depending on your needs and desires. but I've found that the number of miniatures one payer can control tops out at around 10.  That because each miniature is an individual and activates by itself.  So in the core force you get one miniature who is the 'Leader" and is the most badass, one miniature is the second in command and less bad ass; sometimes called the specialist, sometimes called Number 1, and sometimes called Samatha.  And then the rest of the force is made up of 3 regulars / standard / mooks.  

A miniature then is an individual and its abilities during the game are made up from a combination of the equipment it's carrying plus it's traits / skills.  The rules call them Traits but could be thought of as skills and attributes.  This miniature is better at shooting so has the "deadeye' trait.  That miniature is especially strong so has the (wait for it) 'Strong' trait.  This other miniature is really good at needlepoint so has the 'girly' trait.  That other miniature has an encyclopedic memory of star wars trivia so has the 'super nerd' trait.  Some of those I made up.

The Leader gets the most traits, the second gets some, and the mooks get one each.  this is kinda cool because it allows for each character in the force to be unique.  for example; if building a little Viking raiding party you can have the Leader butt kicker; the second could be a crazy Berserker or maybe a skilled archer, the last three dudes with slightly different abilities.  

Fistful of Cards

The basic turn structure of the game uses a deck of cards.  Each player is dealt one card for each miniature in their force.  The cards are ranked King as highest with Ace as lowest (kinda, stay tuned).  After everyone has their hand of cards (and is either groaning or cheering), The cards ranks are called out starting with Kings, and going down through to the bottom.  (Kings, Queens, Jacks...).  When a card rank is called and you have one, you show it with a flourish and then activate a miniature of your choice to do 2 actions.  This is important; is NOT like Dead Mans Hand, where each miniature is assigned a card and activates when it comes up NO.  It's you use the card to activate the miniature you want to, which I really like because it means you can activate the one that needs to move NOW.  If more than one player has the same rank (say three players have Jacks) then the play is in suit order of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs.  

Also, some cards have bonuses when used to activate.  For example, the Jack of Spades gives a +1 to shooting.  You don't need to use the Jack of Spades to shoot but if you do then the miniature gets a +1.  The 2 card allows the miniature to roll an extra die and pick the best.  there are a fair number of bonuses in the deck.  Aces are wild so can be any card. If you have 2 Aces they can even be the same card if need be...

Fistful of Actions

When a miniature activates it can take two actions.  Actions are what you think they are: move, shoot, fight, do a task, aim, pick his nose, reload, ponder the meaning of life knowing that we are brief specs of dust in an infinite void of space.  The standard move is 5".    There are the usual modifiers for range, terrain, cover, all the stuff you expect but there's not really that many of them; one could say only a Fistful.

The game uses D10s, though really skilled characters can use a D12, and really bad ones a D8.  When a character is hit, there is a roll on the wound table and can result in a shock (temp damage that can be removed) a wound (permanent damage), and a small chance to be killed outright.  Characters can take 3 wounds though this number can be changed with traits.  I really like that every time a character is hit there is a small chance that it gets killed outright, as I find that realistic as these are mortal men and even Kings can take an arrow in the eye.  

Clint Eastwood from Fistful of Dollars.
Also known as my identical twin.

Fistful of Observations and Suggestions:

(so that would be two fists then yes?)

The game is usually played on a smallish table; 3x3 or 4x4.  But as I've hinted at this thing scales pretty well so larger or smaller could be used.  Games benefit from a good amount of terrain.  Games of 2 players with 5 miniatures each take about an hour ish to about an hour and half.  Adding more players or miniatures will increase that time obviously, but one should remember that each miniature activates alone, which means everyone is standing around while that player is resolving those actions.  However, the activations are short and tend to be quick.  I think the game tops out at about 6 players and/or 30ish miniatures total.  

There are no points, and the game is very scenario dependent.  Each Genre supplement has a good number of scenarios included (more on that later).  A good scenario and this game is an awesome combination: Like pizza and ice cream.  What? my kids tell me that's a good combination and kids never lie about things that are yummy.  Just everything else.  

There are a whole lot of Traits in the game, I think there is over 100, and each trait has a different effect.  While no trait is game breaking, some traits are better than others.  For example, I don't see the trait "leaper' where the character can jump further than others being much use.  No, I didn't make that trait up.   Now if you design your own warband you'll be familiar with the traits you select but if you're handed a warband and each miniature is super unique it means that one has to become very familiar with 9 traits very fast and that can lead to trait overload; too many things to remember.  

To avoid this it's easier to give all the regular dudes the same trait and just make the leader and the Second special unique snow flakes.

A force roster is essential, but I think it's way cooler to make Character pokemon-like cards that summarize things in one pace.

Example of character cards I made for a Dark Ages game.
Just a clever use of text boxes in Powerpoint.

Just helpful in a convention or club setting where you might have many players new to the game.  

As mentioned above; the game uses a card deck for activations and many cards have special rules attached to them.  This is hard to remember.  One solution is to write the bonus on the actual card as a reminder, but that's a poor mans option.  Plus I have really bad handwriting.  Instead, I opted for one of the custom card decks from the website.  There are lots to choose from to match the genre of your choice; the attributes of the cards don't change just the pictures on them.  I opted for the generic fits all kinda plain card deck.  I'm well off sure; but I don't have 'get 4 different card decks that have the same information but different pictures on them' kind of money.  

Specialist card deck that I got.
Image taken from Wiley Games website.

There are lots of game play vidoes on Youtube if one in interested.  The cards and the combat sysem combine to create lots of dramtic die rolls and roll offs.  The activation system gives a player the right amount of decisions; enough for the player to feel like they have options and can pursue a strategy but not so many to invoke analysis paralysis.  While each figure only gets two actions, it's not really an action economy game.  

I've played about 4 games of FFoL and enjoyed them immensely.  During these games I noticed there was a higher amount of laughter and swearing, and that I thought was a good sign. But it was G rated swearing, my kids were in the house.

Fistful of Books (buying guide)

The Core rule book is pictured at the start of the post, and then there is a supplement for almost any genre you can think of (Old West, medieval, black powder, post apoc, far future, Star Wars..).  Now, each supplement is actually a standalone game.  So you don't need the core rules just to play a certain genre.  In fact, most of each supplement is a reprint of the core mechanics.  You also don't need any of the supplements to play any genre if you have the core rules.  What each supplement offers are a few little twists to the rules to make it fit the genre better, some new traits, and a bunch of scenarios.  

I tend to think of the core rulebook as the supplement for 20th century combat.  

PDFs of the book are pretty reasonably priced.  I did my usual thing where I buy the PDF for the instant gratification and if I really like it I then buy a printed copy.  So now I have a PDF of several books and a printed copy of my favs so far: Might and Melee (medieval / dark ages) and Black Powder.

A nice touch, is that there is an Ultimate trait list on the website for super cheap that has every trait from every book in it.  So you don't feel like you're missing out on anything.

So if you feel like checking out the game, I would suggest just picking up the supplement for your preferred genre for skirmish as that will be all you need to get started.  

So far I've used FFoL for games set in the Dark Ages (Viking versus Saxons) and Black Powder (AWI).  While the core rules were the same; just the fact that one genre was mainly hand to hand and the other was shooting made the games play very differently.  In a good way. 

I'm hosting a FFoL game at Conquest in April, and planning another project for FFoL later in the year. After I finish all these wooden soldiers.  better get back to that now.

Fistful of Tears

Because it's time to say goodbye.  

Thanks for reading

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

reflections on the 100 effort

 And here we are again.  Prepare thyself for text.  Lots of text.  

I've been absent form the internets for the last couple weeks or so due to working my ass off.  Having grown frustrated at being broke all the time I went to that place that broke people should go: to work. 
I've been doing a lot of on call shifts which is basically the way someone in my job does over time.  It can be nice because you get paid just for being on call and then if they call you in then you get more extra monies.  The plan has worked too well as I've been called in a LOT in the past weeks.  On the positive side the extra money is welcomed (and kinda the whole point)  and I've barely seen my family.  My children become adorable when you don't see them for very long.   On the negative side I've had little-to-no time for miniatures.   

I've Been Thinking (a Dangerous Pastime)

I've been thinking about painting, mostly while driving.  My dislike for painting is well documented on the internet, which I of course ham up for entertainment purposes.  My own entertainment really, not sure about anyone else. 

I found that focusing on the dark ages miniatures exclusively until the goal of 100 miniatures was reached to be a real boon in getting that collection to the playable state that I wanted it to be.  But it did take a long time to do (8 months).  Out of curiosity I did a post on TMP asking how long it would take those unwashed masses to paint a 100 figures.  You can see the post here: Linkity if inclined.

To invite comparison is to invite misery.  Most people responded that it would take them just 2ish months to paint 100 miniatures.  Man that makes me look slow.  Course, Who knows how representative that sample actually is.  Whenever you post on the internet that you did something cool in X amount of time, I think it naturally selects responses from folks who did it in X-n.  I'm a little suspect though, because one doesn't see a ton of folks out there with huge armies in enormous mass battles.  It's out there, but it's not the norm.  What I do see are people playing medium sized games and talking about how they got a lot of unpainted lead and too many projects on the go.  

Obviously there's no right or wrong way to do anything in this silly hobby, it's a HOBBY after all and supposed to be fun.   And it's a stupid thing to try to tell someone else how to do a hobby.  But it's a smart thing to think about my own hobby and what I really want from it.  Self reflection is very interesting to read (NOT!).   But maybe if someone is in the same situation they might find some pearls of wisdom.  

My goal of painting anything is to have it painted.  I like playing with painted armies; it's the end result that matters and not the process.  Just like going to the gym; I like having the sculpted abs and not doing the crunches.  If I ever went to the gym that is.  A better analogy for myself is that I like to eat my bacon and melted cheese sandwich but not make it.  I balance the plate on my tummy while I watch TV. 

I've described my painting / hobby time before; in that I'm basically only able to get any painting done late at night after the kids and wife have gone to bed and some chores are done.  The wife might not be asleep but she's 'retired for the evening.'  It's a big affair when she retires, we have to light candles and dim the lights while she ascends the stairs in a night gown and I play an organ solemnly. 

So painting time is limited till between the hours of 9:00ish till around 10:30ish PM.  I like to hit the hay around 1100 since most days I'm up at early.  Either due to work or the children because kids never sleep in.  Damn youth and their zest for life. 

How to put that time to best use is the question of the day.  Because I actually want to get things done. Most gamers that I know have several projects on the go at once, and while they do a lot (or not) no one project/genre moves forward very much.  Everything is starts and stops.  I've always limited my number of projects being worked on at once to 2.  Called the rule of 2.  What a project is can be anything, 1 project could be a regiment of ACW infantry and the other 2 Ships of the line.  The idea that when I say down at the hobby desk I could do either of those projects but wouldn't start another till one was done.  This works fine.  Yet the projects are often disconnected from one another.  The ACW regiment when done would be swapped out for some LOTR Orcs; when the ships were done it was swapped out for terrain piece, and when the next project in would be AWI and so on.  

Painting the 100 dark ages miniatures was started on a lark, just a goal I set to get out of some hobby slows.  It's probably the first time where I worked on a specific genre for months on end.  It's also the first time I ever kept track of how many miniatures I was painting.  

The more I think about it, the more I like that process.  Setting a large goal (naturally being broken down into smaller ones) and keep at it until it's done.  It provided a real sense of progress and completion for me; which is important for my own mental health as I've really just plateaued in life.   

So I'm gonna try it out for awhile.  Pic a genre, set a goal that gets it to the next game-able state, and focus on that.  Not  focusing so much on the number of figures but what the state of play is: A small skirmish can be moved to large skirmish; a large skirmish to a mass battle, a genre not playable at all because not enough has been painted moved to a playable state.  

It'll be an experiment with very low stakes because nothing important will be affected and who cares.  You all will get the watch / read about it and I'll get back to you.  Gotta blog about something after all. 

 What's Next? Same Ol' Same Ol'

"What do I want to paint next?" is the wrong question.  The answer is nothing, I hate painting.**  Why can't I just have a bunch of wargaming buddies with big armies and terrain of their own that host games whenever I want in whatever genre I want so I can just show up play?  And While I'm imagining things why not also have strippers and strobe lights; but the stripper costumes would have a matching theme to the game being played.  

A better question would be "what to game next?"  Dark Ages will dominate games for the rest of the year with the big finale in November when I host several convention games.  he Dark Ages have  gotten a lot of love lately; but I had still had 4 of the big battle bases left over so I thought... what the hell?  Finish the job. 

Mass production mode.
4 Bases and the miniatures to go on them.

the last 4 big battle bases will make each army of Vikings and Saxons 24 bases strong.  These don't have to be done till November so I'm just doing everything at once.  

Edit: forgot to add teh actual paint goal.  which is 10 Thegns, 10 ceorls, 10 bondi and 8 skirmishersand 4 movement trays by Veterans day weekend in November.  Crunch time!

Some other odds and ends:

2 more priests to help out Saxon morale.
The one on the left is super fancy.

Shieldwall markers

Its helpful to mark which units are in shieldwall.  The 10 on the left I made YEARS ago and used LMBS transfers.  The 18 on the right (with 2 shields) I made recently but was out of shield transfers so I painted those by hand.  I think 3 of the 36 came out alright.  I ordered more transfers.  No one looks too hard at markers anyway.

Painted up a mess of casualty figures to use as markers
to help remember which side is winning or losing a fight.

These painted up pretty quick as I only had to paint half the miniature.

Deep Thoughts and Leaving

Thanks for taking the time to read these deep and useless thoughts about painting miniatures.  Hopefully not a complete waste of time for you.  It's in no way to try and convince anyone that what they are doing is wrong; I'm not convinced myself one way or ta other; its just some hobby talk about the painting side of our silly hobby.  Here are some other deep and useless thoughts:

Sand is called Sand because it's in-between the sea and the land.

We have fingers and toes; Our fingers have fingertips but our toes don't have toetips but people can walk tiptoe.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

**for the record; I do like painting.  I like the sense of free time, of doing what I want to do over what I should do.  I like that I'm not just wasting time watching TV.   I like the creativity, I like the process, the time spent by myself, and the relaxation.  But what I really like is when a genre that I've painted hits the table, and everyone oohhs and awwws and applauds.  OK, no one applauds.  

The 5 Year Bump

 This Blog of Terrible Loss is 5 years old this month.  Happy blogging birthday.  Let's talk about Blogging in general and what you can get me in specific. 

Ok, so it's not quite talking.  I'll type and you'll read but try to hear my voice in your head as you do and it will feel like talking.  I sound like a combination of Darth Vader and PeeWee Herman.

5 Years of This Nonsense

So I've been doing this for 5 years now which officially makes me an expert and perhaps, the best blogger ever.  I mean suuuure some blogs will post more often with better content and with less typos; but how many of them have a fun title like mine?     

All of them?  Are you sure?....Ok, never mind that last bit then.  but I'm still an expert. Because I say so.

The problem with blogging is that the vast majority of blog posts are what I have come to call 'look-it posts.'  As in "Look it, I painted something."  or "Look it, I played a game."  or "Look it, I bought something."  These posts are the peanut butter and jelly of blog posts; meaning that it's an easy stable that everybody eats when there is nothing better (or no time to cook).  Even in my own blog there are mainly Look-It posts.  And Look-It posts, like peanut butter and jelly, are boring.

-Wait! that's obviously an inflammatory statement meant to raise engagement in what is otherwise boring text.  Read on, I'm going somewhere with this.

The reason there are so many mundane Look-it posts on a wargaming blogs is that it's reflective of what we do 90% of the time.  Buying things, painting them, and then playing with them.  And this not a bad thing, as it indicates a healthy hobby life.  

But every once in a while, we do something really cool.  We put on that BIG game, we do a cool terrain tutorial, we write a scenario, do a excellent wargame review, or we write a hit song about our love of goldfish crackers or something like that.  These are some of the better blog posts because they demonstrate something, and are inherently more interesting.  These posts provide to the online community because the posts are informational and/or inspirational; becoming a resource for others.  Posts like these are what drew me to blogs in the first place.  

I'm happy that I've done a couple of these over the years.  These posts also tend to get found more in google searches because they offer something that people are a looking for.  Over the last 5 years my top 5 most viewed posts are:

Clash of Spears Review  written in August 2020

DIY Wargame Mat written in August 2017

Forest tutorial written in August 2020

DIY Wargaming Roads written in July 2018

ACW Rule Reviews written in  Feb 2021

-The pattern? In-depth terrain construction and thoughts about wargaming rules.  Obviously no one in the wider internet really cares that I painted 10 Viking miniatures to a reasonable table standard. 

These type of posts take a lot of effort to do.   The projects are large and the posts take forever to write. To continue our food analogy; these posts are the fancy meals, the Thanksgiving Dinner of blog posts.  And I'm proud of those posts (and others like them, there are a few).  They are entertaining, informative, and make me look good; if I do say so myself.   

The kicker is: If my blog only had fancy meal posts the it might be a good resource, but blogging would not be very much fun.  As anyone who has made Thanksgiving Dinner (or any big fancy meal for a lot of people) can attest; It's a LOT of work, there is often swearing involved, usually a minor burn, and crying children.  All for the glorious presentation on the table and the meal is over in 40 mins with nothing left over but dirty dishes and general feeling of being dissatisfied.  And a tummy ache.

When I started blogging, I envisioned mostly doing fancy meal posts but quickly realized that if I stuck to those types of posts alone, there really wouldn't be much here.  There would be long periods of inactivity and no one would be able to tell if the blog was 'active' or gone 'dormant.'   It would be a nice resource for folks, but there wouldn't be much interaction.  

And to be fair, It's not like any of those top 5 posts are jaw dropping-ly good.  I'm not really an expert in anything and all my posts take the tone of  "if this mook can do it, then you can to and probably better."  The only thing that I am consistently good at is falling asleep in bed at night while my wife talks to me.  I do it ALL the time.  

I've said before that without some interaction, blogging would be too much like shouting into the void.

So I started to post more often on the mundane stuff.  The stuff I did 90% of the time.  It was easier for the blog to be 'active' (for me; 2-3 posts a months is about right).  Number of followers grew; currently at 93.  I never really know what that number signifies other than somebody liked something enough to click on the button.  Number of Blogging buddies grew and interaction increased and blogging was fun.  Turns out folks like Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Turns out I like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

As long as it's grape jelly, maybe strawberry.  Anything else is GROSS.  My wife likes raspberry and it's constant source of friction in my house.

Because We All Like PB&J

A Loooooong time ago, before my life was dominated by children, I used to be a part of some wargaming clubs.  More over, I used to actually GO to the club meetings.  2 or 3 times a months really.  Not only would we play some games but people would bring their newly painted miniatures to show off and get ohs and awes.  If meeting in a game store people would make purchases and temp others to do the same.  While playing in one game you could wander over to people playing in another and gab for a bit.  You get the idea.

I'm still part of clubs but much more of a sideline / periphery member.  I hardly ever go to any meetings.  I'm more like a fun guest star and not in the regular cast; I'm the third in the threesome.
In a lot of ways, blogging has become my on-line club.  Especially with the little network of Best Blogging Buddies where we consistently follow each others blogs by writing comments.  There are about 10 people who regularly write a comment on any piece of shit post that I write; and I routinely write comments on their posts which are works of art.  

With some of these guys; we've been doing this for YEARS.  years I say.   There's around 10 additional people who occasionally write a comment  on this blog when something strikes a cord or when life allows.  Therefore most of my posts have around 20 -30 ish comments on them (10-ish people writing a message and me replying.  I always reply, it's just good manners).  
I think this is GREAT fun and provides that interaction that I no longer get from real life (for hobbys anyway).  

I'm not trying to say that this is a LOT or a LITTLE. I see plenty of other blogs that get way more comments and actually see scores of blogs that get waaaay less.  What I'm trying to say is that blogging has become a fun way to get little wargaming-themed bursts of Dopamine from nice people; because all comments are positive (all comments I write are meant to be positive).  I've never had anyone write a comment  saying something like 'your painting sucks and your terrain is trash and you should feel bad because your life is bad!"

Plus, when you follow someone's blog for awhile you do get a kinda-sorta sense of who they are as a real person; and over time they become less like strangers on the internet but more like online pen pals.  On line club members who are sharing some fun hobby stuff.  So when they post "hey look-it, I did this thing" My first thought is "Cool bro.  Nice job.  Your hobby stuff is aces and thanks for sharing."  because Peanut Butter and jelly is not boring depending on who you eat it with.  It's not the food, it's the company.  It's not boring at all.

So to sum up; I've learned that there are basically two kinds of posts in the miniature wargaming blogging world --  RESOURCE posts that tend to get more views and LOOK-IT posts that tend to get more comments.  Any blog that can do both is probably on the right track for super blog stardom (if that's a thing). Look-it posts are much easier to do so tend to get more of them.  

But more importantly THANKS everyone who takes the time to interact, even sporadically.  I really appreciate it and more over, enjoy it.  I hope you also enjoy my lame attempts to be funny and interact on your blog.  

That'd Be A Good Place to Wrap up the Post

But I won't!  Keep it going keep it going!  It's my goal that this will be the ONLY blog post you read tonight.  Or Skim.  or just laugh at the silly memes I pulled from the internet. 

5 Years is a significant mile stone.  Now that we've talked about blogging in general lets bring up the uncomfortable subject of gifts, and what YOU can get me in specific....

You can write me a comment of course!  I just talked about how I liked them.  Just a line to say "nice job so far on this terrible blog.'  even if you haven't done so in a long time.  go on, do it.  Like and Subscribe, ring the bell, and that BS.

Or, if you really want to go above and beyond for this big occasion; write me a blog bump.  

A blog bump is when you use your blog to highlight someone else's blog.  So that your audience can be directed over here to my blog and I CAN STEAL THEM.  

But maybe that will increase the exposure of this Terrible Blog and I'll get a few more folks leaving comments regularly which will mean I'll leave comments on their posts and we'll all get a little more interaction.  Which should increase the fun for everyone. But don't feel like you have to,  

--I don't want to come across that I am chasing comments or likes.  I do care a little bit as I just said I think it's fun; but I don't care so much that I'm up late at night worrying about my view count.  I also don't have any ads or monetary investment in this blog or some strange youtube-ish algorithm that I need to face.  But I will say that MOST of the people that have become Best Blogging Buddies / Online Club Members are the ones I have found mentioned on someone's blog I was already following.  The post went "hey check out so and so blog because he is ONE OF US."  And so I do.  I write a comment like "Hi, I wandered over here from X's blog.  Nice place you got here."  and they would reply "welcome to my parlor Fly" and so it begins.   

Now It's Really Time to Stop

I agree.  Thanks for sticking with this long wall of text.  I hope it was thought provoking and entertaining.  I'll be back *soon* to say 'look-it, I painted some Vikings.'  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Triple thanks if you do the BUMP.  Be sure to let me know so I send you flowers.

Kickstarter Virgin No More

Time to Jump in the Pool?

I've never participated in a Kickstarter (KS) campaign.  I just don't get the concept; you give money to get something...probably.  I've heard all about the warnings and pitfalls, and successes as well.  I know that it usually works out.  I also am not a fan of the wait time for arrival:  paying to get  something in 6 months to a year...if it's on time.  But KS are certainly now 'a thing' and part of our hobby.  To be clear, I don't have anything against KS, it's just something that's never clicked with me.  Seems to me like a great way to perpetually spend money only to forget what you bought.  Until it arrives on your doorstep and you go "oh yeah, this thing!  Yay!"  Then you put the thing on the shelf where it stays for infinity.    

There's also the horror stories of people having backed a successful KS and then a huge box arrives with a hundred or so unpainted miniatures!  You can hear the lead pile laughing at our futile efforts to reduce it's size and girth...

This matches my experiences with purchases of large numbers of miniatures at once, because it was 'a good deal.'  I've done this about 3 times in the past:  The first was a success;  I purchased about 200 miniatures of the Gripping Beast plastic dark ages miniatures (6 boxes at once!) and actually proceeded to paint most of them. Yes, I still have some sprues lying around but overall a success.  Of course, this set me up for complete failure the next two times.  For example; some years ago I purchased someone's Norman army project that he was abandoning; it was maybe about a quarter painted but a WHOLE LOT of bare metal and plastic.  The whole collection was probably over 150 miniatures and a mix of cavalry,  infantry, and archers (I forget the actual numbers now).  It was a good deal, expensive but good.  When it arrived I was thinking "now I have everything for my Norman army and time to do Battle of Hastings.  Right after some serious painting."  

And I've barely touched them.  Sometimes I hear them calling at night.  Over a hundred tiny voices...

I don't browse the KS site, so when I do hear of a KS it's usually through a wargaming podcast or something posted on TMP or Lead Adventure.  I've also never been super tempted by anything that I have come across.   

Until now.

The Tempting Temptations

The first thing to catch my eye was a boardgame that does shield-wall combat. I love the dark ages and ranks of spears and shields bashing into each other.  It's called Battle Ravens by Dan Mersey.

You can find the KS page HERE.

I won't go into all the game play stuff that you can see on the KS page, if you're interested enough to read it.  I ultimately decided not to back this project, as the game play seemed a little too simplistic for me, the more I looked at the I started to dislike the little paper soldiers, and the real deal killer was the English Pound to American Dollar exchange rate.  It made it too expensive for what it was.


I mention that KS just to tell you about the next one.  It's funny how these things happen in groups;  that being tempted by 1 KS makes it more likely that I'd be even MORE tempted into another.  

That's probably a theory of psychology that I should know better. Sounds like 'Foot in the Door Technique' except that I did it to myself.

In a short period of time after Battle Ravens I stumbled onto this boardgame based on Antietam..

You can see the KS page HERE


This project I backed, and it seems like the perfect project to commit to for my first time.  Everyone knows I'm in love with the ACW, and of the ACW my favorite battle is Antietam.    So when it finally arrives sometime mid next year my excite will not have diminished.  The rules seem good and somewhat familiar to Fire and Fury, which means I'll probably like them.  It'll also serve as a good resource for my Brigade Fire and Fury scenario that I've been working on slowly.  And strangely I don't have any ACW boardgames besides Battlecry.

I think it's wise to use KS to invest in a boardgame, because it comes ready to play.  Too many times have I bought into a miniature project and not really taken into account the time it would take to assemble and paint the miniatures and terrain; therefore the project stalls.  Doomed to forever in storage or I sell it off.  Big piles of unpainted miniatures are intimidating and depressing to me.  just stuff that can't be used that takes up space and creates the expectation that I am not painting enough.

Experimentation is Normal

I'm seeing the whole thing as an experiment.  Will I be excited when the game arrives? Will I actually play it or will it just sit on the shelf? Will it even arrive? Will I go off the deep end and start to pledging to every KS that looks like a good time?  Will I have to start selling off possessions to fund my KS habit? 


Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading along.  : )

One Year of Blogging...

Where does the time go?

Beware:  incoming wall of text. 

Sunrise, Sunset

So it's been one whole year since I've started this blog.  1 year is not a long time in the scheme of things but kinda feels like forever to me.  This whole thing started because I was spending more and more time looking at wargaming blogs for reviews, ideas, just some fun stuff to read, and seemed like people were having a lot fun with the interactions from others, building and maintaining an online community, and I wanted to be a part of it.  So far, I think it's going alright.   I really appreciate all the visits into my own corner of the internet and I hope that my comments encourage others as well.  Actually, I still feel very new to blogging  and it's no small skill to be able to write something that is both entertaining, easy to read and understand, and maybe a little informative.  I hope that I am improving. 

It's Not Me, It's You.

I have no idea how to judge if a blog is successful or not.  Number of Page views? Number of followers? Number of bots that spam your posts?  Is it fun?  For me, the thing that has become the most fun and rewarding aspect of blogging is the COMMENTS!  I like leaving comments on other people's blogs and checking back later to see what they say, and love it when comments are left on my blog.  I think everyone likes comments, and sometimes this creates a rewarding cycle:  I'll leave a comment when you post, you leave a comment when I post...even small comments like "Hey good job, I like that," or "atta boy!" are nice to receive.  And while it might not be EVERY post it's more often than not.  These sort of on-line relationships are the ones that I like best and I count myself LUCKY to have a few of them.  If I have any immediate goals for this blog, it's to increase the number of these mutual symbiotic relationships.

Without receiving comments (and let's not forget the little gift that BW sent me after "the shipping disaster" that I still need to repay),  I think I would of stopped blogging pretty quickly.  It'd be too much like shouting into the void. 
So to the people that consistently leave comments and feedback, even small ones:
Thank you.
I really appreciate it.
And I hope that you think I also consistently provide you with comments, and that they increase your pleasure of blogging.

Comments when content is interesting  

Now that I am a 'Master Blogger" with a whole year of experience; I've noticed two other trends with comments.  One is that people will leave a comment when the post is 'of interest' to them but ignore the rest.  I think this style of interaction represents people who have more specialized interests versus more of a generalized interest in wargaming.  I like all things wargaming so I tend to leave comments everywhere, because I'm a little bit into everything.  This sometimes results in weird situations where I'm following a blog that seems to focus on Napoleonic land battles which I have almost no interest in collecting...( I would play in any nap game, I just don't want to collect the figures)

-why? I find the history hard to follow, I don't know what the soldiers are called (whats a Fusilier, how is it different from a Grenadier,  and what's a Hussar?), the uniforms are intimating the paint, you need a ton of miniatures-

..but the blog is interesting, the author is entertaining, I like the discussion of scenarios and AARs, there are awesome tutorials on terrain and conversions, nicely painted miniatures, etc.  (you get the idea).  So I'll leave comments on their blog post after post.  Sometimes, the person responds back and then we enter into the mutual symbiotic pattern that I described above.  And we all feel happy.

BUT!  And Speaking for myself here; if they don't, or just leave a comment here once in awhile when the post is interesting to them, then I find that my behavior will start to match theirs.  Each one of us leaving comments once in awhile when something peaks our interest.  A pattern of Comments When Interested.
- I don't think this is a bad thing necessarily.  It's perfectly acceptable, it's just not as much fun.  : )

It's also understandable.  Looking back over the last year I've mainly written about ACW and AoS, and if those two subjects don't really interest you then all that is left are my outrageously humorous jokes.  Which should be enough; my wife always rolls her eyes and says that I'm hi-lar-ious.  And one thing I have learned after hundreds of days blogging (365 of them!) is that you got blog about what you find interesting, otherwise it becomes a chore.  It's nice when others also find it interesting but no one is required to.
And I imagine, that most of the people on the 'Followers list' fit this category. Interested enough to read along and comment once in awhile.  These people are also appreciated, and I hope that when a post I write is interesting to you, you'll say so.  I promise that I will do the same.

--unless you have a google plus profile, in which case i'll be lucky to even FIND your blog because I do not know where to look, I just don't understand that platform.  So far I've only been able to find two blogs through google plus and that was by luckily clicking random places.  I also don't know how to leave comments through google plus.  Google plus is lame.

Not responding to Comments in General

The other trend I've seen is that the author doesn't respond to comments at all.  And while people can do what they want, I find this behavior weird.  It's kinda like walking right by someone who just said hello.  I'm sure the person is not intentionally being rude, it's probably just not their style to build interactions.  I've found that on blogs like these, while I might follow along I've stopped leaving comments altogether.  You'll see that on my blog, I like to acknowledge comments with a thank you.  It just seems the right thing to do and I enjoy blogs more that are similar.  

Ok, enough talk of comments, it is time for action!  And that action is: more reading!

Highlights of Year 1

So my original intent in this section was to make a list of blog posts that others had written and that I had really enjoyed, that were posted throughout this first year.  Kinda like; 'here's some stuff that you wrote that I really liked.'  

However, the list started to get too long and cumbersome,  I started to get worried that I'd leave someone out, and getting the links right was such a pain in the ass; that I gave up on that idea.  Either I am way too easy to please and like everything or there is a wealth of excellent blog posts out there.  Not on this blog of course..   How was that for an extra special look behind the scenes here at Terrible Loss.  And because I am a comments leaving machine I know I've already told you how awesome your post was.  Just know that if I said that I really enjoyed a post or series of posts, that I meant it.  

My blogroll has grown tremendously, and the number of blogs that I actively read has increased.  I really do enjoy what I read and makes me feel more connected to this wargaming hobby.  Which great for a guy like me who doesn't get to game as much as he likes; because families ruin everything.   I also figured out how to get it to display only a certain number of blogs at once, because I don't like it that the list just goes on and on and on down the page.

It's Not You, It's Me.  

On a much more manageable topic, let's talk about little ol' me.
Looking back through my posts, I find that I still like most of them.  I think I can see a small improvements over time in being more clear.  Overall; my favorite posts are the ones that are more than just "hey, I painted something (poorly)" or "look, I played a game;"  my favorite posts of mine include a discussion about the scenario, a review of some sort, and the tutorials.
-The tutorials are not meant to hold myself up as an example of being awesome, but hopefully come across more as "here is what I did, I hope this will be helpful to you."  Also that if I was able to construct something than anyone can; I am not known for being the most handy or good at skilled labor.

Also I am pleased that the blog has an overarching tone of fun and being positive.  We all could use more of those qualities in our lives.

Convention Games...(part 1)

I love wargaming conventions.  I usually have anywhere from a blast to a 'very nice time.'  They're like weekend long vacations for me where I get a break from having to be responsible for anyone else, a chance to put all my toys out on a table and get some oohs and ahhs, and of course to get in a lot of games.   I usually allow myself to go to two conventions a year, one local so I at least appear to be home (and save on the hotel) and one that I travel to and stay in the hotel allowing for complete free-dom.


Let's talk a bit about wargame conventions and my plans.

Kublacon (Come and Gone)  & Conquest Sac (I'll be back)

I had to miss my usual two wargame conventions due to them being too close to the birth of son #2, and it seemed bad timing to try and sneak away.    Conquest Sac is a small convention that is local to me and Kublacon is a HUGE convention that's in the bay area.  To be honest, Conquest Sac I can take or leave; I really only go because it's a local con and any local con is a good con (and to be more fair, it is the best of the local cons).  But I do feel like I  missed out in not going to Kublacon.  I guess having a new baby is more important than playing in Jay's HUGE WATERLOO GAME;  but the game is a very close second...

However, not one to give up I tricked the wife into watching the kids to allow these two alternative Wargame Conventions:  Midsummer Conquest at the end of July and Pacificon at the end of August.  Confirmed with days off from work and everything.,,,


Midsummer Conquest

This is a Brand New local convention, running for the first time.  As I've mentioned, I like having local conventions because I feel it'll only gives me more options to game at some point, so I'm trying to support it.  There also might be potential bragging rights being able to state that I attended the first-one-ever.    However I don't have high hopes for the whole con experience.  Last time I checked the schedule for games being offered there were a whole 6, of which I am hosting 2.

Yep, I volunteered to run two small ACW games, because at the time I was surrounded by awesome ACW content on all the blogs I'm following and I made something of a snap judgement.  Since I am not expecting a large turnout of gamers, the ACW games I'm running are small 2 vs 2 games with small commands that could also be run 1 vs 1.  These are also very doable as I don't really have to produce/paint/make anything in order to put on the games, so pressure is off and anything I do make is just extra fun.  I thought that was 'a smart idea.'
One such game will be the scenario Caldwell Clears the Wheat field, which I have previous post about HERE.  Maybe if I get time I will remake the famous Wheat Field (so famous, that it gets capitalized).

Pacificon

This is the Wargame Convention that I'll travel to in the bay area, and room is already booked! This is over the Labor day Weekend, and probably around 2 ish hours away.  When I was living in the Bay Area I would attend this convention regularly, and haven't since moving to the Sacramento area, so I'm looking forward to attending.

Decisions and Decisions: Thoughts on how to decide which games to run for a convention.

I have not decided what to run at Pacificon, and I have to the end of July to officially submit something, and I'm day dreaming of the possibilities. Some thoughts of mine:

To Over commit or Not. 

I want to put something on that I'm excited or passionate about, and will likely continue to be excited and passionate about 3 months from now.  I'm pretty much old enough now to know what I like but these do change over time and some interests wax and some wane.  It's also a known fact among gamers that nothing increases productivity like a deadline.  The more informed might call this "goal setting,"  but the idea is the same:  sign up to run a game that requires more than what you currently have prepared, so that you'll need to get it done by game day. Then when you reach your goal not only did you put on an awesome game but you increased your painted miniature collections.  

But it can be very easy to take on too much by forgetting about the whole picture or not accurately accessing what you need, and then you find your're in over your head.  For example: let's say I'm thinking about doing a larger ACW game using Regimental Fire and Fury (best ACW rule set EVER!) then I'll likely need more USA and CSA infantry bases, more command stands for both, do I have enough terrain (especially snake rail fence) and markers!  everyone forgets about markers.  Every regiment in RFF has the potential to be marked as 'low on ammo' and 'disordered.'  If there are 40 regiments on the table, how many markers do I really need? (probably around 30 or each). 

I'm also thinking I might try hosting a game Post Captain.  I think an ideal game of PC would be 4 players with 2 ships each.  Which means I'd need 2 more ships which sounds easily enough to do in 3 months.  But I'd also want to use some cool fallen mast markers (for the inevitable falling mast, have you ever seen an AoS game where a mast didn't fall?)  instead of the plain toothpick that I use now.  I'd have to make these markers which might take extra long because I really don't know what I am doing.  plus, they might look like crap.

I'm thinking it's too much to commit to BOTH of those, so one will have to win out over the other.  

To Transport and Set Up, and to Tear Down. 

I'm a one man band when it comes to putting on games at a wargame convention, due to the fact that I'm hard to get along with from poor social skills.  So I got to carry and set up all the game stuff on my lonesome.  Since I don't want to spend 3 hours setting up and putting away a game this naturally means there's a limit on how big a game I can to put on.  There's also a limit to the number of players I can comfortable handle that ensures everyone is having fun.  This trends toward a max of 6 players, and a manageable table size of around 5 x 6 when using 15/18mm.  Table gets bigger when doing 28mm bc they take up so much more room.

I also don't want to spend 3 hours packing and unpacking the car; meaning it makes sense to be consistent in the size / scale of any games I'm going to offer.  It'd be a lot of work for example to pack all the stuff for RFF ACW game in 15/18mm and all the stuff for a Hail Caesar Dark Ages game in 28mm.  The more stuff you bring the more likely that you'll forget something.  

Mental Straining:

I dunno about you, but after 2 days of gaming and multiple rule sets combined with being over caffeinated, lack of sleep, and probably some alcohol; my brain gets tired.  If I'm putting on two games (which I usually do to get in free) then I find it easier to use the same rule system for both; requiring that I only need to know 1 set of rules from top to bottom.  Sometimes I even run the exact same game twice.  You might be smarter than me and able to do more.  My brain is tired just from writing this post.

Presentation:

I want my game to look cool.  I wanna show off a little bit.  A lot of work goes into painting  miniatures and making terrain.  I'm not talking 'best in show' or anything but it's very satisfying when people comment on how nice the game table looks.  So I want to do something that has a little bit of a 'wow factor.'



After you make those decisions, the next step is to pick which games / scenarios you actually want to run.

SO? Pick Already

No, I'm not ready to decide, but I must soon.  Because If I need to produce some stuff for the game, NOW is a good time to start.  I'm tempted by 3 subjects right now:

Age of Sail with Post captain (will need fallen masts markers and 2 more ships)

ACW with Regimental Fire and Fury (depending on game size, might need nothing, but could be an opportunity to increase the size of the collection...try out a new scenario).

Dark Ages Mass Battle with Hail Caesar - my new shield wall supplement should be on it's way soon, and it's been awhile since I played with those toys....

Thanks for reading.  Comments appreciated; though I guess Blogger no longer alerts me with an email when a comment is left.  I'd say I might miss your comment but that'd be a lie, I live for comments.  

Things about blogging and blogger I've learned...

Random thoughts on Blogging

My next big post on ACW is under way, but thought I would write down some quick thoughts about blogging.    I'm new to this blogging venture, and there are some things that surprise me..


You don't get notified when someone decides to follow you, which I find strange. I wish I could say "thanks."  I know it's not a huge effort to follow someone, but it does feel like an endorsement that someone states 'when this Stewart fellow writes something I at least want to know about it.' 


You do get notified when someone leaves a comment, which I do like but didn't know.  Now I want to go back to some blog posts on other blogs that I found really useful but didn't leave a comment because I thought the post was so old it wouldn't get noticed.


When I click on a follower profile, it shows other blogs being followed by that person but not their own.  However, if someone leaves a comment and I click on that profile in the comment section; the profile WILL show someone's own blog.  If someone is taking the time to comment or follow my blog I am naturally curious about theirs, and in fact I've started to follow several more blogs just because someone left a comment here. 

Comments are Awesome

I've discovered the thrill of getting comments.  It's fun to put something out there and get feedback on it.  Since I like it so much I've also started to leave more comments on other people's blogs, even small comments like 'nice job."    Of course, I can only find your blog by you leaving a comment here, or  a link on TMP.    On a similar note; I've learned that really nice and/or informative posts take effort to produce, and my appreciation of such posts has increased.  Even if the post is not on something I'm very interested in, such as colonials and Zulus, the Roman slave revolt, almost anything with aliens or what have you, I now understand better the effort it took to produce such a post. 


I sometimes struggle (well not really struggle but over think) about what to share and what not to share.  I know it's my blog and all, but sometimes I write something and when I edit later (when I do edit) I erase something that seemed too personal.  I don't mean political or religious statements because those are just derisive.  Dunno.  I'm actually something of a private person (not a secretive person, I don't have any good secretes anyway...) (except that one...)  so blogging in general is something outside my norm.  I blame social media for corrupting me and making it sooooo  eeeaaassy.   I have no one  to please but myself, and I do want the blog to be a light hearted and fun, with a theme about wargaming and hobby of another 40 ish slightly pudgy wargamer. 




Thanks for reading. 

A Conflict of interests...

Alternative title: How I cope with multiple wargaming projects.
All of this is, of course, just my opinion, and what works for me.
This post is more of a short essay about wargaming, and an aspect of the hobby most of us deal with at one time or another; how to be productive and complete projects.

Here's a typical wargamer / hobby conundrum...What to paint next?

what to do, what to do --  1/200 ship on the left, 18mm ACW on the right.

Here is a shot of the projects on my hobby desk.  I just got my next ship in the mail, and I eagerly tore open all the packaging to verify it was all there, and giggle.  AoS is my newest genre and I'm all excited about it.  But while I was waiting for the ship to arrive, I picked back up my ongoing ACW project, with some CSA reinforcements that are nearly done.  Which project to do?

(of course, it doesn't seem nearly done when you start thinking about what steps are left; paint some rifles, paint the flesh, paint the hair, paint ALL the bases, Wash in AP strong tone, spray with antishine, flock all the bases, and then attach the flex steel to the bottoms for storage).

My CSA troops, needing reinforcements to stand up against the Yankees.

Like most people, even though wargaming is really my only hobby, I have limited time and resources (bascially money) to devote to it; after work, family, chores, and everything else that people have to do.  And I have learned that if I spread those resources too thin over a too many projects then nothing gets done.  When nothing gets done I get frustrated and unhappy in my wargaming.

When I moved a couple of years ago, I did some searching into my wargaming soul, triggered by having to pack up and inventory all the wargaming miscellany.  It was quite sobering how many half started (or purchased and then never started) projects / genres that I had lying around.  Miniatures bought and never painted.  Rule-sets read and never played.  I ultimately determined that this was a BIG waste of resources (money and space) and looked very hard and very ruthlessly at what I was likely to complete in the near future, what still held my interest, and determined that most needed to go.

I won't bore you with a list of what I jettisoned, because it would only make sense in the context of what I kept, and that's a lot of writing for what I suspect would be little interest, even to me.  But I sold some stuff at a flea market or two for very cheap, gave a lot away, and just threw away other stuff.  Threw away in the trash!  It was a tough but necessary step, and honestly I can't even remember what it was now really that got tossed.   It was the great purge of 2014, and honestly...

It was a very liberating experience.
In one fell swoop (one fell swoop that actually was over a month long of packing, sorting, selling, etc..) I rid myself of the thought of "guh, when am I going to get around to painting those Romans (and the Gauls). "  "I can't start another project because I have so many already..."

I am now waaaaay more selective of what I invest in and collect.  But the up side of this is that when I do start a project there is actually progress and sees the wargaming table, versus being bought, and just being put into storage when the next "oooohhh shiny" comes along.

I limit myself to purchases of miniatures in only two genres as at time, as in, only have 2 projects going.  I like having 2 genres going at once, because it's too hard to focus on 1 project for an extended period of time but bouncing between 2 will still provide some variety.  An 'extended period of time' for me means about a year or more, because it takes that long to go from nothing at all to having 2 painted armies plus some terrain.

For example, going through my emails I see that I first started talking about starting an ACW project in October 2014!  That's over 2 years ago, and during that time I focused on ACW and Dark Ages, and it's paid off because now I have a decent collection of both.Here's  a shot of an ACW Game I ran at Kublacon.  Enough figures for 5 players.

ACW game, the Union attempting to push the CSA off the field.

The civil war project has benefited from my constant focus, as it's gone from nothing to a large force of Union, a medium force of CSA, plus fences, fields (see the other post about plowed fields and cornfield), some cavalry, and artillery.

Normans cross a river to attack a Saxon village.
The "Harrying of the North."  

Here's a Hail Caesar game that I hosted at my place while ago (I had to did through my pictures to find a shot).  There were more figures coming on as reinforcements even.


The Dark ages has been complete 'enough' for awhile now, having enough troops to play any skirmish game I like and big battles large enough for 3 players per side (though there is always some more I would like to do, like even bigger battles!).   The DA collection  includes about 200 miniatures of Vikings, Saxons, and Normans; also civilians, movement trays, carts, and terrain.

Completed genres hang out in the storage containers, ready to be broken out whenever I like. This makes me happy and increases my enjoyment in wargaming.

In closing; I have found that I get more done and enjoyment by focusing my limited resources across two genres at a time.  I get the variety of different things to paint or model so my hobby doesn't become tedious (though painting is always a little tedious ins't it?).  The focus also means that 'things get done' which results in the thing I like best; playing with painted armies!

Painting the ship will result in a second ship complete, for a total of  1 French and 1 British; meaning that games that focus on smaller actions (like ship versus ship),  like the rules Post Captain, are ready to be played.

Painting the CSA will result in having enough troops to play the next scenario that I am interested in playing, taking place in the wheat-field of Gettysburg.


I'll write more on another post about  how I keep my focus and avoid the "oh new shiny" more often than not, and some thoughts about using 'the rule of 2' and organizing your hobby.

I hope this was, at least, somewhat interesting.  Thanks for reading.