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.

Wooden Wars More

If a Stew-paint could paint wood,
how much wood could a Stew-paint paint?

A Stew-paint would paint as much wood as a stew-paint could paint,

if a Stew-paint could paint wood.

More Wooden Wars

Progress on the wooden Napoleonic soldiers continues.  It's somewhat embarrassing that others are painting actual Napoleonic miniatures, whole units in fact, faster than I am getting these done.  And I'm basically just coloring.  It's like Napoleonic shaming.  

The French

Marching onward:  I now have enough French miniatures 'painted' up for my planned introductory game with my two oldest kids. least I think so anyway.  I don't have much experience with this sort of game so it's kinda learn as I go as to what makes it fun.  

36 French Infantry are done. A unit can be between 10 and 24 figures, so I thought 3 units of 12.  But looking at it now 12 seems a little small.

Wait, where'd they go?
if flats were real soldiers, they would march sideways into battle.
Like an army of crabs.

Each infantry unit can fire with one ball.

Joining the infantry is some artillery support.

French Artillery Crew.
Got a flame dude, a bucket dude, a sword dude, and Q tip man.

from the rear.  

Each Cannon gets 4 crew members

Bam, bam, bam.
A 3-cannon battery.

The cannon barrels are not attached, so if a thrown rubber ball knocks it off the gun counts as destroyed.

Each cannon can fire with one ball, so this battery will throw 3 when it fires.  

Leading the French is this mounted officer.  He doesn't shoot.  His job to ride around the battlefield attaching to units to rally knocked over soldiers and increase movement.  

"Oui, Oui, Oui, mon ami,"

The officer is not attached to his horse, so he can be knocked off it, just like a real soldier.  

His job is also to look super suave.  Or as you say in in French "Suave-veh"  (that is not real French)

Beginning French force for Wooden Wars

The British are Coming!

(Wrong war, I know, but Paul Revere doesn't hold a patent) Not to be completely outdone by their cross channel rivals, the British have come a long way as well.  

British Foot soldier in the bare wood.
I'm trying to think of a 'bare wood' joke and failing.
Something about the size of his timber.

Painted up

rear view

More.

I actually have 30 of the British soldiers done but you don't need more pictures.  In hindsight these miniatures are actually being completed rather quickly.  So take that you Napoleonic shamers ya gosh dern dab nabbits!  

Plans

Peter F Drucker once said. "Unless commitment is made; there are only promises and hopes, but no plans."  Commitments have been made.  Soon I should be able to play a test game with my two oldest children this month.  And see if this whole exercise will be worth it.  

Working on stuff for use with your children is strange, because on days when they seriously misbehave, I'm like "why am I trying to spend MORE time with you?"  

Actually I am REALLY enjoying working on these wooden flats, it's easy, it's fun, and the result is very pleasing.  As a first foray into Naps it's going rather well.  I even got a book on Waterloo.  

THE BATTLE OF THE CUB SCOUTS is scheduled in March (which is just hosting a battle with kids in my son's Cub Scout den, but it gets capitalized because I kinda hyped it up (incidentally the Cub Scout den grew this month from 6 kids to 10, I might need more troops)). 

Lastly in April is The Intergalactic Conquest Convention.  I volunteered to run a game of Wooden Wars in the morning and some kid friendly board games in the afternoon (I have plenty), as part of the Young Players Program.  

So far I've been told by the convention management that I AM the young player program and they'll be sure to 'promote these games in future advertisements.'  

So, ah, I best deliver.  

Thanks for reading,

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Hobby Budget

 

let's talk about something super uncomfortable: MONEY.

Oh, is that too uncomfortable?  Then let's talk about Sex.  Last night the wife and I....

Let's stick to money. It won't be that bad.

New Year, New Hobby

January is the month for new years resolutions.  Hobby resolutions are all the same; get more stuff painted, play more games, finish X project blah blah BLAH. 

Before I come off all snide (whaddya mean too late?) I should point out that I have all the same hobby resolutions. I'm no better.  I wanna get more stuff painted, I wanna play miniature games more often, I wanna finish that project that's been sitting around for too long.  I wanna feel like I'm actually enjoying my life from time to time.  

It's kinda like how all of us men in our late 40s have the same resolutions; lose weight, be healthier, be a better parent and husband.  I'm looking at you Dai.  You too David.  It's like looking in the mirror.  

We all got the same goals but we're gonna go about them in different ways.  To achieve my goals I'm gonna use the most powerful concept that man has ever invented: Budgeting.  And you thought the most powerful concept man ever invented was freedom. Pffffft. Freedom only works on a budget.

Hobby Dollars

For a long time now I haven't kept track of how much money I am spending on this silly hobby.  Perhaps that is an appalling thing to admit as I am a grown man, with a job, the sole provider for the family with other responsibilities.  So maybe it's important to know how much money is being wasted on plastic Vikings versus groceries.

Previously I've told myself that I can buy whatever I want when I want but 'don't go crazy because there is such a thing as too much.'  Because after all, I am a grown man, with a job, the sole provider for the family with other responsibilities.  So if I want a box of plastic Vikings who's to say no?  Not my family, because I'm not gonna tell them.  Not you guys, you're complicit.  

Yet money is the limited resource that will be used to achieve these hobby goals of mine.  Actually all hobby goals are achieved through the limited resources of money and time, usually in a reverse relationship.  Less money spent equals more time needed to completion; more money spent means less time needed.  

Because I recently turned a year older and wiser, and greyer and somehow more attractive; I've become suddenly very attentive to money and time.  But this is a hobby blog so we'll focus on that aspect of life over the serious stuff.  No need to get bummed out by the inevitability of death  (whaddya mean too late?) .

I'm fairly sure I have little more time to give.  I'm a fairly busy man (aren't we all).  The time that I do spend is already chiseled out of a fairly packed schedule.  Instead I'll focus on the money which will be easier to track, with the idea that by paying closer attention; any money spent will be more effective in completing goals.  

An effective budget needs a limit.  I decided to set my budget at $1000 for the whole year.  that will include everything for this hobby for the year; buying miniatures, paint supplies, Only Fans accounts, attending out of town conventions, everything.  Depending on your own Socio Economic Status a thousand dollars for luxury goods for 1 person either seems a pittance, the just right amount, or an extravagance.  Feel free to judge me.  I'm just a stranger on the internet and I don't have real feelings.

I'll be using the blog to track expenses.  I don't have any yet, it's only January and I have quite the backlog stored up... as I think it might be fun and somewhat interesting to track throughout the year.

CURRENT TOTAL: $1000

Side topic: Bonus Moneys: 

Work Overtime: Anytime that I work overtime; half of the extra income may be applied to the hobby budget.  I don't do overtime a lot because it's a pain in the ass and in my profession I do overtime by signing up to be 'On-call" for all hours for any Mental Health Emergencies.  It usually means working on weekends and stinks, but it does pay decently.

Time to Go

I bet you did not expect such a Cents -sational post about a budget.  I'm sure it's got a high Interest Rate.  It remains to be seen if this Investment will pay Dividends. 

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comm.... wait!  I just wrote my second post of the year, and without any MEMES! 

Ha!  Proves that I don't need memes as a crutch.

wait, does that count as....?

/sigh.

Till next time.  Actual wargaming content next time.  

Wooden Wars

 Alternative title: The Dad Dilemma

Alternative Alternative title: What to do with the damn kids?

I have 2 big projects that I want to tackle this year.  This is the first, and it involves the most fearsome beast known to mankind: CHILDREN.  

Turn back now if you are of faint of heart and nervous disposition.

disclaimer: there are no kids in this post, only snide comments about them

Child's Play

For reference, my remaining children are two boys ages 3 and 5, and a daughter age 10.

I'm lucky so far in that my children enjoy playing board games.  At this point I have more 'kid friendly / family' board games then I do grown up adult board games.  And I lean toward chucking the grown up board games because they never see action these days, or years. 

Of course, the board games are just the gateway to get them to eventually play miniature games.  This is a purely selfish desire;  I want guaranteed opponents in my old age for my vast miniatures collections that I'm going to have.  Get'em hooked while they are young; so much later in life  they don't have to say to each other "No, it's YOUR turn to play with dad, I did it last time."

I needed a miniature game that threads the needle for the 10 and 5 year old.  I've invited my 10 year girl to play a miniature wargame a few times as she's smart enough to get some games, but she's always declined stating that she "doesn't like toys with guns or weapons."  Pity, as most of my WARgaming miniatures have some sort of weapon.  Sometimes she wanders over to my hobby desk while I'm sitting there doing something from Lord knows where; I wasn't watching her, it wasn't my shift.  And then she's really interested in what I am doing, because it's bedtime.  She finds lots of things really interesting right before she should be going to bed.  

The game that I've settled on as my gateway drug is called Wooden Wars from Skull and Crown miniatures.

I saw this game being played at a convention a LOOOOOOOONG time ago, saw lots of kids and patents having a great time, so I'm glad that it's still around.  

The premise is simple and fun: armies are made of wooden flats and players shoot by tossing a rubber ball at them.  Solders that are knocked over are casualties.  It's a winning combination; miniatures for me, tossing stuff for the kids.  My kids love to toss stuff.  If there's a choice between placing something down and tossing it then tossing it wins every time with them.  

At the last convention that I attended, I sidled up next to Mr. TF who owns / runs / is Skull and Crown miniatures.  Reintroduced myself as we've met before but it has been a long while, and talked some shop.  Mr. TF is a very nice man with a winning smile and answered many of my stupid questions even after I placed an order.  

Before the year was over, I had a large box arrive: 

It was a very HEAVY Box.
Mr TF even threw in some extra goodies.
Because I am also a nice man with a winning smile
and we take care of our own.

 

My First Naps

The wooden soldiers are based on the Napoleonic wars which, my best blogging buddies will attest, I know nothing about.  Words like Hussar, Landwehr, Fusilier, and Cuirassier mean nothing to me, and could equally describe types of cheese or alien races in 40K because they sound like made up words.  

These being my first Naps, it only seemed right to start with the French.

The French soldier comes like this in bare form.
Includes an option for a fancy furry hat.

Needing to know what a Napoleonic French infantry uniform looked like, I took to the internet for a deep dive into Napoleonic uniforms.  Luckily for me, Napoleonic uniforms are fairly drab and consistent so little research was needed.  

We'll pause here for Naps players to recover their breath after hyperventilating, or to clean the screen perhaps after doing a spit take.

Actually, I just went to the Skull and Crown Blog and copied the pictures that I saw there.  

I'm also forgoing traditionally painting the flats with brushes; and am going for an easier option of using paint pens, so it's more like coloring in the spaces.  

After some experimentation I found that 'coloring' before assembling was easier
and looked better in the end..
After finalizing a color scheme I went into mass production. 

I feel some Pressure (like a drip, drip, drip, that'll never stop, whoa) as I would like to use these soon.  I think I ordered enough wooden troops for a game with 4-6 kids as I think this will be fun to play with my son's Cub Scout den.  Also; there's a convention in April that has a "young player" program and I think it'll be awesome to show off.  So April (really late March) is the DEADLINE.

One done.

After all the coloring.  Glue all the pieces together.
Here's the front and back of a French soldier.
I added the ruler to show that they're about 3.5 inches tall.

I decided to color the backs of the flats in a rudimentary fashion, as the bare wood looked odd.  It's a little extra time but with kids we all know that Time Spent  = Love.  I'm just getting lucky that the time sent is not actually with them.

Because I am a grown man in his late 40s, I'm a bit of an expert at coloring..  I cans stay in-between the lines and everything (mostly).  

This is from Peppa Pig
My youngest kids still like it.
Sometimes, I feel a lot like Daddy Pig.

As I said earlier, I feel the Pressure (that'll tip, tip, tip, 'til you just go pop, whoa-oh) to get this done quickly, but maybe I need not panic.  It's only been a week and I already have MANY done.

 

Looks Napoleonic to me,
because it looks like a high school marching band.
Which is what I secretly think to myself whenever I see a Naps Game.

Eisenhower said "Plans are useless, but planning is essential."  Right now I'm planning on making enough French and then enough British for a small 1vs1 game with my two oldest kids and seeing if they like it.  they BETTER!  Otherwise I'm gonna end up with a pile of painted miniatures that never see the game table.  What miniature wargamer has that??   Embarrassing.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Arise Blog! Arise!

 /prep spell "revive blog."

-Spell "revive blog" has been prepped.

/cast spell "revive blog." 

-You cast Spell "revive blog"

--Blog has been revived.  You hold your breath to see if anyone remembers or cares.  You are disappointed to see that only the spammers and the bots are interested in new posts by you.  The internet has moved on.  Worse yet, people have declared that the ACW is not the best CW after all. 

Remember those old text adventure games?  Some of them were more snarky than others.  

Arise! 

Hi there.  Welcome back to the blog of Terrible loss.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and any other holidays that I might of missed.  Also any important life events that might have happened.  

Did your dog get married?  that's wonderful.

Did you have to put your Aunt to sleep?  that's sad.

Did I get those mixed up?  I'll fix it later.*

In all seriousness, I hope you all had a nice enough winter break.  I'll now take a moment to go read AAALLLL of the blog posts that I have missed over the last 3 months.  Be right back...

/play inner monologue

-Inner Monologue is playing while you read blog posts of other bloggers.  as you scan over several posts it goes something like this: "yes, that is good.......fine, fine.....all very well over there....Gah!  those are god awful and that is a stupid idea, but I'll write a comment that says "those are really good, and it's an interesting idea.' because I want to be nice and to be seen as encouraging even if it's the worse idea I've heard in 6 years and no one wants honesty.....I'm sure nobody does that to me...

Great stuff everyone.  Nice to see that you all held down the Blogasphere without me.  It's almost like another wargaming blog like this one isn't even needed.... Never mind.

The Start of the Wargaming Season

Like many men, one can track my life through seasons.  Baseball season, football season, hockey season...etc... Though I don't watch any sports because sports are lame and extremely boring to watch.  Plus whenever I'm around sports-watching-people and they say things like "We Won YAAAAY!"  I'm always having to make a Self Control check (2+) to not say "correction; the sports team that you wanted to win because you overly identify with their victories or defeats has won the game, therefore you feel good, but you did nothing. THEY won.  Not you.   yaaaaay."  

I'm never invited to watch sport games.

So nothing lame like that.  I mean the wargaming season.  Something substantially more important.  Miniature wargaming, where fortunes are made and actual lives are changed forever.  

It just turns out that near the end of the year things get really busy around here at house Terrible and time for hobbying tends to evaporate.  It then resurges in the new year as time returns as the children all distracted by all the new toys they got and the wife is bought off with all the expensive jewelry she got and I finally get some alone time to sit at a desk and make believe with little soldiers.  real Grown Up stuff.

The Wargaming season starts NOW, and should last till around October / Novemember-ish depending on resources, time, and inclination.  

The Hobby season coincides with the Blogging Season.  So lucky, all of us. Because how does one even do wargaming without a blog?  Mind boggling.  

I actually did some wargaming stuff over the break; made some terrain and markers,  went a local convention and hosted two games.  I didn't take any pictures which at the time I found LIBERATING but now I kinda wish I did. If only there was some other person there who could take pictures for me.  Oh wait,  there was. 

Mr. GM over on his blog took pics.  See it HERES is so desires.  My games are the Dark Ages and the ACW (the McPherson's Ridge game as featured on this blog before) nearer the end of the post.

Go!

Go as in begin, and Go as in 'get out of here.'  I'll begin reading and commenting on the blogs of the usual suspects and we'll see who wants to to be Best Blogging Buddies again.  No harm if you don't.  Just ignore me till I get the hint.  But if ya do then leave comments back and we'll be like old friends come back from the front. Starting at the top of the blog roll and going down. 

And now it's time for me to GO and get out of here.  As this post has gone on long enough without providing any super cool miniature wargaming content.  Which is the thing we all desire. 

Hopefully talk to you again soon.

Thanks for Reading,

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till Net time.

*

Did your dog get married?  That's sad.

Did you have to put your aunt to sleep? That's wonderful.

There; I fixed it.

The Bye-atus.

That's Hiatus with a B.

Because I like messing with words, and because we're saying goodbye for a while. 

Bye

Oh, it's nothing so dramatic.  I'm just gonna take a break from all things blogging for a while. 

I'll flatter myself that there's one or two people out there who enjoy this blog and look forward to my stupid posts.  So this is just to let them know that it will be long time before the next one, but I'm not dead in a ditch somewhere using my last breath trying to post lame memes.  

This has happened before in previous years; I get busy and hobbying takes a back seat.  I thought I would make it more official this time around is all.  I'll still be doing some miniature wargaming from time to time, just not blogging about it.  This is my ONLY hobby afterall.  If you don't count restoring ancient Egyptian erotic pottery.  But that's not so much a hobby as it's a passion.  

This blog is lucky enough to have people who regularly comment on it; and those people are unlucky enough to be inflicted with my comments on their blogs.  Poor saps.  But if they're like me; one comes to expect it, and when not there, one wonders why.  (that was an awkward sentence wasn't it).  

I'm not giving you the silent treatment.  Just taking break.  Go on being you.  I won't be reading blogs very much or writing comments.  Which is a shame because I just conquered the list of top 10 commentators on the Palouse Wargaming Journal....  

TOP SPOT!
Everyone El-is is Jeal-ous.

Don't feel like you need to leave a comment on this post.  It's nice if you do, but this is more like a service announcement and anything important.  

I'm sure I'll return in few months all refreshed.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

See ya next year.  

(probably). 

-Stew

Pacificon Convention AAR

 

It was another glorious drug fueled, alcohol fueled, game fueled convention over the Labor Day weekend that is called Pacificon.  It's been a few years since I've attended, and it was good to be back in action. 

Even if I was trying to shrug off the last tendrils of a serious cold; that's where the drugs come in.  What drugs did you think I meant?  I'm getting too old to be doing bumps in the men's room.

Alcohol and Games?  Well, it IS a convention after all.  Here is my rambling personal accounting.  Going to be lots of pictures.  

Pacificon Convention AAR

Pacificon was held on Labor Day weekend from Friday Sept 1st through Monday September 4th in Santa Clara California (in what is known as The Bay Area).   I don't have numbers for attendance because I'm not in the know.  The place was certainly hoping from my perspective; in game scale terms I would say that Pacificon is a large skirmish, nearing a mass battle.

Friday morning I gathered all my stuff together that I would need to run my game.
Not too bad.  Good thing my game was in 15mm.

Arrived at the hotel without incident, checked into the convention to get my name badge with no problems, and found my roommate the fabulous Mr DR.  Then hit the game floor.

Games On

A great guy that I've been getting to know over the last few cons I've attended is Mr RG, who ran his own Star Trek rules, which I was itching to play.

HERE!
Here is your damn Borg cube.
Told you it would be incredibly big.
But what a great job he did. 
The cube even had little lights shinning out.

Other ships and game shots:

I thought it a superb touch that he had his own custom dice trays. 

I got a prize just for playing in the game and having a good attitude.
Captain Kirk Socks! Hi-larious.

Friday night I went on to play in a game called Circus Maximus.  It's a chariot racing game Ben Hur style where ramming and whipping the other chariots is encouraged... even necessary. 

A huge race track and 15mm chariots.
I'm pretty sure this is an old Avalon Hill board game, that he 'biggified' and modified slightly for more carnage.

Saturday the majority of the day was playing in my friend Jay White's utterly MASSIVE and EPIC War of the Ring game.  1000s of 28mm LOTR miniatures from game workshop.  The game was based on the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.  

Who the Hell has 5 Mumaks??!!! 
He does.

Part of the Mordor Army ready to assault Minas Tirrath. 

also a STUNNING model of Minas Tirrith.

I felt very lucky to command the Rohan force.
That's about 2/3s of them.
The white maned horse in the middle is Theoden, 
who Survived the battle!

"Ride for Ruin and the World's Ending!!"
yes I shouted the line outloud.
We were all shouting quotes from the movies.
It wasn't just me.
(it was mostly me)

"Take them them head on!"
(yeah, mostly me)

This game was easily the epic show stopper of the con for me.  Great host.  Great group of players, an epic display.  It was a loooong game and lots of fun. 

You can see more of the game on Jay's own blog and his account of the convention HERE

He has much better pictures.  At the end most people thought it was a pyrrhic victory for the evil side; having won the battle in the field but being so weak now it couldn't assault the walls.  But I THINK that us good players were pulling ahead.  

Later on Saturday night I played in a car racing game called Thunder Alley.  It's also a board game 'biggified' but on a massive scale.  I think the track was about 12 feet long.

All the cars had LED lights underneath them that would switch from Green to Red
to show which had activated.

SHOW TIME

Sunday morning came around and it was time for me to host my ACW game "Afternoon on MacPherson's Ridge."  Takes place during the battle of Gettysburg, where two divisions of the CSA assault the remnants of the Union 1st Corps on the ridges outside of town.

Pictures of the whole table set up.

CSA pushing the USA off the rolling ridges, but can they push hard enough???

I had a great group of players.  Jay White (who ran the WOTR game earlier) also played to 'scratch my ACW itch" as he said.  So if you went to his blog for more WOTR  there's also more pics of my ACW game there as well.  Lucky for all us I'd say.  

Also playing was all around good guy Mr. Ix, who helped as official assistant GM as he knows the rules well.  Even if he made the silly mistake of putting his troops into extended line....  (inside joke).

I would say the game was a smashing success.  It was scheduled to run from 10am to 6pm. At 10am I had six players.  4 p[layers stuck around for the whole game, 2 left and 2 new ones subbed in.   Around 5pm I addressed the players; "look, we oughta wrap this up.  Mainly because I am out of cigarettes but also because we're supposed to be done by 6.  Right now the game is tied with 3 victory points each and 3 turns left in the game.  However, I don't think anyone is gonna kick us off the table and I am here all night, so we COULD keep playing if people want to...." 

And everyone playing shouted at me that they had to keep playing to see which side would win, and to get out of the way already.  "Fine," I said, "We'll take a 15min break so folks can grab snacks and drinks (but mainly cigarettes) and the war shall continue!"  applause all around.  We kept playing to 7.  

I got lots of nice compliments about the game's appearance and my GMing.  Which is, of course, why I do it.  This war-machine of me is fueled by caffeine, nicotine, and compliments.  

The rest of the convention (Sunday night and Monday morning) I spent playing board games with a motley assortment of characters (most of which I knew).  I didn't take any pictures, because pics of board games are boring.  

Other Games

I won't pretend to be like our European friends who go around trying to document every game.  I didn't.  But here are some other games that caught my eye while I was doing other fun stuff. 

This game had a train on it.
Which makes it cool.

Gaslands using 40K orcs.  Jay White and his buddies were playing,
brilliant models.

WWII

My friend and convention roommate Mr.  DR put on this game,
set in some war no-one's ever heard of but is somehow Naps. 

Test of Honor game being set up

A battle of Hoth game from StarWars

A Vietnam game

A great looking game set in some conflict I've never heard of

Overall

To me the convention was a great success.  The hotel was clean and the room was nice.  I gave myself a budget of $500 which I broke.  Most of that went to the room and food and alcoholic drinks (next time I got to remember to bring my own).  I decided to live large and pay for the convenience of the onsite food services; which were VERY good tasting and ample portions, just expensive.  Like ballpark expensive.  Though by the end of Sunday night and Monday morning the nice people running the food stalls were giving me free extra "just take another one, I won't charge you."  

There were cheaper food options a short walk (a local Mexican place that I went to twice) and a short drive, but really I barely went outside.  Which is great, because the outside is lame.  That's why games take place inside. 

Most wargaming weekends have small peaks nd valleys, and this convention for me was ALL PEAK.  I never had a bad game, every player was fun and had a good attitude, everyone just happy to be there.  Most of my games were a mix of familiar faces and new folks.  I never went hungry or thirsty (plenty of water coolers spaced out), the staff was nice and friendly (the convention staff and the hotel staff).  There were games going on literally ALL the time.  I mainly looked at miniature games because that's what I like.  Seemed to be hundreds of board games being played as well.  I'm told there was roleplaying and LARPs going on somewhere out on the periphery, which let's face it, is probably where those players are happiest.  

I didn't pay close attention to the  flea markets or auctions because  I already have enough unpainted miniatures and board games that I never play.  Plus, coming soon in my neck of the woods is a Historical Wargaming Swap Meet that I'm planning on going to, so I wasn't motivated for flea markets.  Besides; these days I'm not so much interested in purchasing someone's aborted project for pennies on the dollar than I am in buying someone's already completed and fully painted project for big monies.  

Overall I had a great time.  So good in fact, that as I drove home I got depressed as I remembered that I have a wife and children that will probably want me to do stuff for them.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment,

till Next time.