The Saxon Army

 

"Did you just say 'The Sex on Amy?'"

-No, I said Saxon, as in my Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon Army.  

"That's not as exciting.  Unless you like a bunch of dirty men with long strong spears."

-But doesn't everybody??

"In-deed."

Dark Ages Anglo Saxon Army

Since aaaaaalll the way back in August (as seen in THIS previous post on August 4th) I've been slaving away at making new big battle bases as the old ones just wouldn't do anymore because I am an older, wiser, and generally more fussy wargamer.  

With 4 more bases done; I peered up from the frantic work at my hobby desk, waved away the lingering clouds of static grass and flock hanging in the air, rubbed the brown paint off my fingers and face, and discovered---- "Hey, I'm Kinda out of Saxons.  Guess that means the army is done."  

Now it is time to see the army in it's new glory and also do an inventory (because I'm not really sure what's in it).  I laid out the army as if I were gonna play Hail Caesar.  It's a Parade!  

 

Saxon King in the center of the army

A noble leading the left flank

A noble with a fine mustache on the right flank.
If I ever go bald, I'm growing a huge cop-stache like this.

Picture taken from the helicopter of the whole army.

Here's a graphic of what's in the actual army

The entire army consists of 8 bases of armored 'Thegn" types (chainmail) and 10 bases of unarmored 'Ceorl' types.  3 leader types, and 4 groups of skirmishers.  Since a normal unit consists of 10 miniatures I made the small skirmisher units 5 miniatures.  2 of the Thegn bases could count as Huscarls if I wanted, as the base has miniatures all with axes, a steely penetrating gaze (which was hard to paint), and a standard bearer.  Though, I think the army overall is a light on banners and could use more just for the visual appeal. 

In Hail Caesar, it's perfectly fine to have loose order skirmishers without a base and just little blobs.  Other rule sets that I also want to use will want these on bases as well.  The plan is to use a standard 10 man base with the 5 skirmishy miniatures and 5 blanks to cover to left over holes. 

The priest miniatures are just for show because I have them.  Besides, no self respecting defender of the christain faith would take to the field without a few to nag at him.   Though in actual HC games they will serve as markers for special rules and re-rolls.  

Last pic I promise.  Though doesn't everybody LOVE a parade.

I'm very pleased with the overall appearance of the army.  On a side note; I found it difficult to photograph so many miniatures so I'm not sure I pulled it off.  

I did say "Kinda" 

Just to be super clear: I haven't been painting miniatures.  All those Dark Ages Saxons were previously painted and I'm just sticking them on the new fangled base.  IN FACT, looking back at previous posts shows that I haven't painted ANY miniatures at all this year.  I find that interesting.  I've painted other stuff of course; one cannot completely escape the endless chore of painting in miniature wargaming.  Just like doing dishes or laundry, and I thought getting married would free me of those chores....

While 18 units is suitable massive, I actually envision the army being closer to 24 bases, because that's how many I bought for them.  And there is a still a handful of Saxons left over.

Left over Saxon dregs.
"Why don't you love us?"

Obviously not enough miniatures to fill a base, so these remainders will be just stored loosely all on their lonesome, and who knows what trouble they will get into?  Staying up late, drinking hard cider, and looking at naughty things on the internet.  Websites like "dark age beauties" or ever worse: hobby blogs. 

A Conflict of Desires 

I have a strong desire to actually finish something.  Can you imagine having a wargaming project actually finished?  So on one hand I want to start painting up Saxon miniatures to 'complete' the army or at the very least so that every Saxon is on a new ultra pretty big battle base.  On the other hand I have a desire to keep churning out big battle bases but now for the Viking Army 

Tub of Vikings says,
"you better make us some fancy-smancy bases before we get bored
and burn down your house and enslave your family."
Damn pushy Vikings.  Always threatening to pillage something.

When both armies are on the bases then some mass battle games can take place.  I got some things in mind I want to do.  

To make up my mind on what to do next, I'll play that game where you answer a bunch of rapid fire questions of 'This versus That' and you answer without thinking too much to arrive at your true desire...

Pizza or spaghetti?    Pizza

Sit ups or push ups?   Nap

Blonde or Brunette?   Brunette

Airplane or boat?   Boat

Coffee or tea?  Coffee

Summer or Winter?  Winter

Roses or Daises?  Ahhh, I'm a man, all flowers look the same

Cats or Dogs?  Neither

Missionary or Cowgirl?   Nap

Cake or Pie?   Cake

Hamburger or Taco?   Taco (that one was actually hard to answer)

Pancake or waffle?    Pancake

Tattoos or Piercings?   Well I still have all my tattoos but I took out all my piercings years ago...

Robots or Dinosaurs?    Dinosaurs

Guacamole or Salsa?   Guac

Pineapple Pizza or Candy Corn?  Gross!

Miniatures or Bases?   Bases.

AH-HA!  Bases it is then.  One can't argue with a modern psychological technique that I read in a Cosmo magazine.  

Till next time.  Thanks for reading.  Comments appreciated.  

Deja Vu

 This post will cause a sense of Deja Vu for the regular readers.    Which I'm always surprised that I have.  You can probably just skim down to the bottom. 

Deja Vu Tokens

Continuing on from the last post, I've made some more dark age themed counter tokens.  

26 more super theme-y dark age tokens

There are now around 50 of these things, and that SHOULD be enough to fit all of my purposes.  

For more Deja Vu sensation; I've also made more dice holders for the 5mm dice.

You could call these Deja Dice.  But that Kinda sounds like a porn star. 

I think I have supplies enough to make around 50 of these as well.  But I'd like to try them out in an actual game first just to see if they aren't too faddily to actually use.

Deja Vu Bases

Continuing on with the grinding out of the big battle bases.  Here are 4 more of the 10 man bases with Anglo Saxons on them.  Yay!  

There they are, all base like.  

Deja Vu Objectives

No wait... these are new-never-seen before.  

I didn't mean to make these.  I just ran out of suitable weapons for the counters and had 4 little bases left over with nothing to put on them.  

Two Objective markers  I decided to make into "fairy rings" because when I had the idea; I liked in theory but I'm not so sure it came off in practice.   But in any case they'll do to mark an area of ground that needs to be fought over while not getting in the way.  Lots of games require such markers.

Earning some Hubby Points

We've talked before about Hubby Points.  Sometimes called $Hubby bucks$.  These are the things you earn by being a good husband and father that you store up and spend to go play games later on and ignore your wife and children.  I just spent all mine on my recent game weekend so am in dire need of some more.  Every man earns them differently; I mainly get hubby points by doing the dishes, folding clothes, watching Jane Austen movies, and vacuuming the floor without being asked.  Flowers help too.  When you have a baby like I do there are extra opportunities to earn points by changing especially stinky overburdened diapers.  

My wife is also the Girl Scout troop leader of daughter #1.  When she had the idea that a fun Girl Scout meeting would consist of racing mini-donuts down a track of some sort but then despaired of not having such a track; I capitalized on the opportunity to earn BUCCO Hubby Points by offering to build it.  

Then naturally put it off till the last minute.  But a promise is a promise and a promise to your spouse is more like sacred oath that if broken will call down the gods of vengeance.  

I made two.  One 'race track' down a long slope and one 'skill track' where the girls could try to aim the donuts going the slope into target holes. 

These weren't anything that had to be permanent so I made these out Foamboard that I got from the dollar store and a hot glue gun.  Spray painted blue with some painted details. 

The 'Race track"

Race Track in Action

My Daughter on the 'Skill Track" 

(These pics were from the iphone movie so aren't the best, but you get the idea.)

Afterwards the girls get to eat the donuts.

Protip: Powdered donuts make great racers.  

Like a lot of things in life about half way through these projects I realized how I could of done it better but it was too late to start over.   Just like my life overall.  

Thanks for reading.  Comments greatly appreciated.  Till next time.  

B to B and BBB

Stands for:  Back to Blogging and Belated Blog Birthday.

Back on the Interwebs

Hello All.  I've been absent from the internet / blogosphere for about a month.  Just had a lot going on with the family and Work.  Not all bad but not all good either but that's the way it goes (says this stoic individual resigned to his fate).   As some of you know, I do most of my blog writing while at work because I have built in time where I basically just sit around and 'be available.'  But lately I've needed to actually earn my money.  What kind of world is this??? 

There was also about a 3.5 week period where I didn't have a cellphone.  It was TOTURE.  I actually had to look at my children and wife while they were talking me.  And since my cellphone is the primary way I view blogs and leave comments, I haven't been doing any of that.  So IF you missed my stupid inane comments on your blog posts that's the reason, and it's definitely not that I was mad at you and giving you the silent treatment out of jealously because your miniatures hobby is cooler than mine.

(Ok, maybe it was a little of that)

I got my cell back and have started leaving comments again.  I'm working my way up my blogroll.  

I did have email access while at work and limited access to our laptop while at home; I say limited because during that time the wife was also working on two very big projects and needed to computer for important stuff.  It didn't feel right for me to hog it in order to gossip about toy soldiers.

And while I am fessing up to being a bad blogger, I'll add in that the blog birthday came and went and I didn't even notice.  4 years of A Terrible Loss.  Time flies and we all get older (cue the Landslide song).

Progressi nell'hobby  

(Felt like saying 'Hobby Progress' in Italian, not sure why but it adds a little je ne sais quoi (and now French!  This blog is SOOOOO internacional!))

Even with all the stuff going on I managed in squeeze in some hobby times for the sake of relaxation and downtime.  It was weird doing hobbies without a cellphone as I usually play a youtube vid/podcast/audiobook while doing stuff and so it seemed eerily quiet.  Also, I didn't have a good way of taking pictures.   Not that there is a lot to photograph...

First up: Tokens 

I really like the rules  Clash of Spears but it needs a lot of tokens.  As I like my games to be at least as pretty as I am (a low bar) I wanted some fancy-smancy tokens that will look good on the table.

These are just 25mm bases with some ground texture; I tried to make them plain enough so that it's easy to see the swords and stuff as that's the important part.  The weapons are mostly from the Gripping Beast boxes of plastic dark ages infantry  types and there's more where that came from.  Proof that you NEVER throw sprues away because I've had these lying around for years.

Clash of Spears also requires that each unit track it's fatigue.
I made these tracker markers.

I dislike dice on the table.  Problem is; dice are very useful for tracking things in wargames.  Especially if the number is gonna be a number 1-6 which it is soooooooo much of the time (it's like wargame rule writers KNOW we have oodles of D6s).  So if I must have dice on the table then let's try to disguise them a little bit.  The idea being that when you look for the die you can see it but otherwise it blends in.

Anglo Saxon Spear man says,
"These dice look small even to my eyes, which you did not paint."

These are small 5mm dice and frames that I got from Minibits placed on a 25mm base.  I might of gone too small, but larger dice still screamed "THERE'S DICE ON THE TABLE HERE!" to me.  

The tokens in action!  This unit has taken two actions and has 3 fatigue.
It's an amazingly exciting picture.
What can be more dramatic than pics of tokens in action?

This is enough markers for a 2 player game.  I'd like to increase the number for a 4 player game, and it occurred to me that these markers will have uses in Mass Battle games as well.  For example; units in Hail Caesar can take up to 6 hits and can become disordered. 

Kinda like this.
Another extraordinary shot of tokens in action.
Bout as exciting as watching ice melt.

Speaking of Mass Battle

I continue upgrading my mass battle trays.  I completed 6 more of the 10 man trays.

An artistic pic shot an angle.

Front view.
The middle center unit all have axes and are meant to be Huscarls.
They have an nifty banner.

Rear view

That's 10 bases done so far.  I'm guess-ta-mating that there's likely enough Saxons for about 8more bases.   And then there are the Vikings still to do.  I'll be making bases for awhile it seems.  Good thing I enjoy it and it's a nice break from painting miniatures. 

Ein Wargaming-Wochenende ist Wunderbar!

(I actually took 4 years of German in high school.  So naturally all I remember now are the cuss words and phrases from WWII movies.)

Here in the USA it was Labor Day Weekend recently.  For awhile there I was planning on attending my first game convention since the pandemic hit called Pacificon held over the same holiday weekend.  I ended up not going due to 'reasons.'   Instead, my local friend CG and I got together for a gaming weekend on our own which worked out quite nicely.  Goofed off all day Saturday and most of Sunday.

On Saturday, I hosted an ACW game of Regimental Fire and Fury.  We did the Battle of Stones River scenario in the RFF book.  It's basically a big CSA assault onto a Union line.  There were 4 players including me.

My Confederates moving on the left

Some more on the right side of the field

Union reserves

I was busy hosting, playing, eating, socializing, and sneaking off to the bathroom to do bumps of cocaine.  As a result, I only took those 4 pics.  4 pics over a 6 hour game.  

The rest of the weekend was spent playing board games of various sizes and shapes with people that CG knew.  Apparently; when your children are all grown up you get time to play board games on the regular.  That's nice to know!

A bit About Board Games

I like board games, and it's something I don't do very often so it was nice to scratch that itch.  And I like board games that are moderately complex and take awhile to play.  I didn't take any pics because as a rule pics of board games are BORING to look at (Exception to the rule: Norm's blog).   Yet by the end of Sunday afternoon I was definitely 'boardgamed-OUT.'  We were starting a game called Viticulture (a worker placement game where you make wines, and it's a pretty good game)  when the depressive side of my brain rudely  engaged itself stating 'You're gonna spend 3 hours playing this game, you're gonna figure out the engine but probably 3 turns too late to win, and even if you like the game you're not gonna buy it and you're probably never gonna play it again and even if you do it's gonna be years later and you'll not remember sooooooo why are you doing this?"  

I drowned that voice in iced coffee and had fun anyway.  I think I was just getting tired of learning new games.  It's like I want to play new games, but also want to play games that I already know I like and know how to play.  And the wife says I am hard to please.  

Also, My Wife is Awesome

Because not only did she watch the 3 surviving kids while I was off playing games; but on Saturday morning at the last minute we lost our gaming venue, and the wife immediately said we could play at our house.  She also speed cleaned it as we headed over there (I mean the house was clean, but wasn't 'guest clean') and THEN took the kids out of the house for most of the day so they wouldn't underfoot.  

Freaking Awesome.  I should buy her something nice.  Maybe she'll like a board game about making wines?  

The End (I know I know I know)

That's it!  I hope you enjoyed this post about... nothing really.  Some pics, some jokes, some half formed thoughts.  Probably what you expected!  

Till next time hopefully not as long.  

-Stewart

From Single to Mass Battle

 

Welcome!  Here for you I have a long post to say something simple.  

But first remember back when you used to watch The Muppet Show and the announcer would say in a big voice "Piiiiigs... In.....Spaaaaaace!"  Got that in your head?  Good, now read the title..

AAAdventures in Baaaaaasing

See, that was fun.

Now let's talk about evolving basing needs and half solutions and failed experiments.  Especially when it comes to my dark ages collection.  The collection started out small, then grew as all collections seem to, and basing and storage needs changed as it increased.   It's one of my oldest collections and it's mutations over time demonstrates me going from a novice gamer to the excellent-blogging-all-knowing-war-god you know today.  

At First, There was Singles

I started getting into Dark Ages gaming when SAGA came out.  It's a skirmish game so naturally all the miniatures where based in singles.  The warbands were sold in boxes of  Gripping Beast Miniatures with the Renedra plastic bases all included so it was one stop shopping and soooo convenient.  

Now when the entire collection could fit in a shoe box, storage really wasn't an issue but as the collection grew to include lots of Saxons, Vikings, and then Normans it started to get messy.  Especially if I transported said shoe box.  As I drove to the destination with the shoe box on the passenger seat next me I would hear the miniatures sliding all around and colliding into each other.  Didn't help that I have a habit of driving fast and stropping quick while rocking out to Brittney Spears.   

The guy in the front with his arms wide open is yelling
"Everybody wait!  I dropped my helmet!"

Then I feel in Love with Magnets

Because I never liked battlefoam type storage.  It has it's uses for big miniatures like ring Wraiths on fellbeasts but mostly battlefoam is only good for lining the floor of some small caged animal. 

Magnetized storage however, is awesome and sexy.  And secure.  But it takes some practice to get right.

The plan: Put some metal on the bottom of the bases so that they can be stored and safely transported in plastic storage container lined with a magnet.  When you have too many miniatures for the tub, just get a bigger one. 

A small tub that used to hold Normans.
Now being used to hold civilians, scatter terrain, and other fun stuff

Normans in their new home: the Big tub.
Most of them anyway.

For infantry, I discovered that fender washers are magnetic and roughly the same size as the 25mm base.  So I started gluing washers to the bases of all the infantry.  Worked like a treat!  I continued the practice for all new recruits into the Dark Ages Collection.  

Fender Washers on the bottom of miniatures.
(This Viking Miniature has been ready for priming for years)

And Then There was Trouble

(If you have children; the phrase 'and then there was trouble' will instantly trigger flashbacks to watching endless Thomas the Train episodes.  I should of included a trigger warning, but hey, reading blogs is a dangerous pastime.)

As the collection went from 1vs1 skirmish (2 player games), to 2vs2 (4 player games) to Large Skirmish, to mass battle and now reaching multiple player mass battle (that progression is called the "collection evolution" by the way),  it became time to invest in some movement trays to create elements.  While trying out several different rulesets I came to prefer those that use static elements versus those that remove figures as casualties.  

First stop: Sabot trays from Litko

6 man Tray.  I think these were used for Dux Britanniarum by TFL,
Which after some plays I decided was not a good game.

I had two issues with these: one minor and one major.

Minor Issue: I didn't like the look of it.  It's tooooo neat with the dark ages warriors lined up in orderly ranks like they are soldiers in a horse and musket battle.  I know NOW you can buy these in all manner of configurations, but back then there wasn't as much abundance of choice and I didn't see any I really liked.  And then I had the Major Issue.

Major Issue: Fender Washers are actually just a touch BIGGER than 25mm, which means they didn't fit in the movement tray well.  Or at all. 

So in order to get the miniatuers inside the tray I had to take a dremel and sand out the inside of the hole to  enlarge it by about a millimeter or so.  This process was 1) Hard (because I am clumsy) 2) Messy 3) imprecise; so some holes ended up being much bigger than needed and 4) A Pain in the Ass; so I stopped about a quarter of the way through.  There had to be a better way.

A Better Way (Kinda Sorta, More like an Adequate Way)

The solution I came up with was to purchase different movement trays: and because I can rock out with my cock out I went with METAL. 

A metal movement Tray.
While I did eventually paint them all brown I never did get around
to putting flock on the sides.

These metal movement trays I purchased from Shogun Miniatures.  Great company, I still buy my magnet bases from them.  It's a steel tray with a sheet magnet on the inside to hold the miniatures. 

I settled on a unit size of 5x3 inches, with around 12 miniatures arranged in various ways.  I liked it because I could avoid neat orderly ranks and just have masses of men.  I used these for a couple of years.

Pics from a game of Sword and Spear.
Vikings versus Saxons

A Hail Caesar game.
More Vikings versus Saxons (will those two never get along...) 

Another Hail Caesar game: Saxons versus Normans

Though metal also had it's drawbacks.  Over time I started to dislike the empty / bare spots of the tray where miniatures weren't standing.  But the biggest drawback was that the metal trays were actually hard to handle during a game.  They're hard to pick up and move around, they are very heavy, and there's not a good place to get purchase with my weak slender fingers while other gamer's fat fingers couldn't grip the thin sides.  One often had to use two hands to move the tray.

But as I didn't know of a good alternative and I had already invested so much energy and money into the metal trays I stuck with it like a bad marriage.   Either that or rebase everything.  

Saved by the British

One day long ago,  I was playing a dark ages game and I forgot my metal trays, so the guy I was playing offered to use his movement trays and picked up a miniature to place in his sabot tray.  I was in the process of making a dirty joke about my 'base having too much girth for his small hole'...

when it fit perfectly.

I was... shocked and surprised.  

I squinted my eyes and asked "wheeeeerrree did you get that movement tray please?"  Because even while shocked and surprised I still remember my manners.  

"These are from the UK."  he replied.   "From the UK says you; good to know says I," I said suddenly talking like a pirate for no reason. 

Fast forward 5 or 6 years while I got distracted by the ACW, the Age of Sail, and having too many children.  Here we are in the present day and I'm thinking about movement trays again.  After some internet research I have learned a critical piece of information:

That a Fender Washer is the same size as a 2p coin from the UK (26mm).

I'm assuming the P stands for Pence but could mean Polliwog for all I know.  I've never been to the UK.

I can buy movement trays from the UK and not have to rebase my dark ages collection.  HA-HA! TAKE THAT SUCKERS!  (I'm not sure who the suckers would be in this case).

Tray from Charlie Foxtrot Models.
I asked for magnet holes and got them, 
so glued in some 2x5mm Rare Earth magnets.

As an experiment**  I ordered some 'Loose Order' movement trays from Charlie Foxtrot Models (and got excellent customer service by the way) because I liked the look of them and he actually gives the measurement of the hole as 26.3mm so I knew my miniatures would fit.

knocked one together and got this:

I really like the look of it.

Looks like the magnets work as well.
(Who IS that handsome fella)

Liking it so far I was motivated to put together a few more:

A Saxon lord leading a small contingent of 4 bases.

Veeeeeery niiiiice.  I am pleased.  Exactly what I was looking for and I feel a new life coming on for mass battles in the dark ages.  I can make out the ranks on the trays but the ranks are not neat and orderly and the 'mass of men' effect is present.  The ground cover works well to blend in the miniatures.  But most important of all is that the trays are easy to pick up and handle.  

** It's great it worked out because I lied earlier.  I didn't experiment but GAMBLED.  An experiment sounds like I ordered just a few trays to see how they would turn out, but what I actually did was order 48 of them and hoped that I would love them.  I imagine I felt very similar to when men order mail order brides.  

When all is completed, it will give me enough for 2 armies of 24 elements each and that ought to do it.  

Here We Are,  At the End

That was long post to say a simple thing of "I ordered some movement trays and I like them." 

But where else but a blog can you get the exciting backstory and context?  And wasn't it exciting. 

I tried to make it an interesting story.  

Thanks for reading it.  Or skimming it.  Or just looking at the pictures.  

Thanks more for leaving a comment.  I really appreciate it.  

The Viking Shore Part III: the OTHER longship

 

What's better than having one longship?  Having two longships!

The Other Longship

Finally completed my second longship.  This is the 'Long Serpent" from Old Glory.  It's a big resin cast so there was little assembly required.  

Whole ship

I used the left over shields from the first longship to line this one as well.
Now they are like twins.

Dragon prow.
Somehow it looks both mean and sad at the same time.

The Ship is sold as a 25mm model.
So here it is crewed by some 28mm Viking thugs.

Didn't that turn out nice?  I think so.  Now I am the proud owner of the beginnings a real Viking fleet.

Both ships together.  They match up near enough.
I doubt that I would ever want/need more than two.

Wandering Eyes in the Dark Ages

In the hunt for a dark ages mass battle ruleset that I really adore I recently picked up Impetus 2 from Wargame Vault.  

I have mass battles rules that I like well enough, these being Sword and Spear and Hail Caesar, but I don't really adore them.  They're like the women you date while you wait for someone better to come along; so that you have someone to go see movies with or take to parties.  This leaves me with wandering eyes for different rulesets.  I've heard some good stuff about IMP2 so when I saw it was on sale I purchased the PDF.  

At first I found it hard to read and understand honestly.  Usually when I read a wargame ruleset I can see in my mind how the game takes shape but not in this case.  This has happened to me before with this publisher (Dadi&Piombo); as I also have Lords and Servants and Long Rifles by these guys and find them confusing and hard to grasp so have never tried them.  Now I am not a dumb person (Of course I would say that); I double majored in college and have a doctorate so I'm pretty sure I can take in information and spit it out again.  And I don't mind complexity in a rule set and have plenty of such board games to prove it.  But there's something with the writing style, or maybe because it's a translation, or maybe it's just the mechanics themselves don't ring with me; that I found myself going "what?" a lot while reading it. 

Though during sequent reads it's starting to make sense and I'm actually liking what I am reading.  Persistence pays off sometimes!  I usually give myself 2 read throughs of rules; while I don't expect to know everything right away on the second time it at least needs to start to make better sense or I'm not bothering with it.  (I'm LOOKING at you ADLG!  I read you twice and still you made little sense, and now you're in the trash!).  

Yet I know it's going to be one of those games that you have to see on the table and run it through it's paces to really understand how it all comes together.  Ideally I would find someone who already knows the game and could walk me through it. 

Though I am annoyed with them again because apparently I have to buy The Warbook 2 to get the army lists I want which is NOT AVAILABLE as a PDF yet, and I have mentioned that I HATE BUYING BOOKS OF ARMY LISTS THAT HAVE 103 LISTS IN THEM (yes I counted) WHEN I ONLY WANT 4 OF THEM!!!!

Sorry for shouting.  I get worked up sometimes.  If I were a wargames company I would do the cool thing and either provide the points system so that people can make their own armies, or provide army lists free online, or just sell smaller PDFs that have 20 lists for like $5 based on theme or region. 

The other ruleset I purchased on a lark was Triumph!  This one has the advantage where there are lots of youtube vidoes on it.  There are somethings I really like about it and somethings I'm not so sure of.  Apparently it's a DBA derivative but I've never played DBAnything so it's all fresh to me.  However, I've never seen a DBA game being played and thought; "that looks like fun."  

Time will tell.  

What Now Kemosabe? 

Besides working on the above Longship and being distracted in real life by such things as Mental Illness, a insect infestation in my house, drunken in-laws, sick children, erupting volcanos, homicidal inmates, meteor showers, and a general lack of time; My wargaming hobby has been meandering and unfocused and not much done.  (yes, I made up some of those things; I enjoy hyperbole).  

I'm feeling the urge to actually complete something.  Just need to pick something that give my life direction and meaning.  

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