Prepping for this weekend

Working on a few items for this weekends games day at my place.

 

First Sentinels games of the new year

New year, two games played, but with all to familiar results!

 

 

    Our heroes for the night

Blast from the past

While doing an inventory of my great pile of unpainted miniatures, I stumbled upon these old scratch built 15mm vehicles. Clearly, judging bu the dust, it has been quite some time since they saw the light of day Also they certainly have seen better days s all of them have taken some damage!

First post as I enter my new retired 'fulltime' gamer career

So, the first full day of my retirement draws to a close and it feels good!

As we are still in the holiday mode, the amount of time available today to devote to my 'career' was very limited. I was able to spend a couple of hours working on my 15mm Sci-fi figures, doing an inventory and assembling 20 or so speeder bikes, and a couple of scout grav tanks, but really no major progress.

The inventory was the big thing, something that I am trying to do for all the genres that I have figures for. The main reason for the inventories is twofold:

1. First off, there is my overall determination to reduce my expenditures and to concentrate on completing existing projects, and most importantly playing a variety of games as often as possible.
2. Secondly, there is the simple more practical aspect, and that is the fact that with my new retirement status, there is also a reduction in disposable income. 

So each should feed the other, hopefully.

The idea of cutting back on adding to the great pile of unfinished models, and projects has a real appeal. Hopefully I will be adding posts showing finished projects. Still, I sense that trying to wean myself off the spending habit will be very hard. Even now there are two last orders to be made that were to have been made before the new year, but were delayed. Once done I plan to impose a moratorium on new purchases.

The plus side is that I am rarely tempted by new games. Yes the hype will impact on me, and yes they can be tempting, but by cleverly dragging my heels, I have, in the past, managed to elude the temptation. Gangs of Rome, and any number of recent Warlord games spring to mind as examples of games that I have resisted. The genres that I have, and the scales that I play are pretty much all that I really need.

One weakness that I do have, is that I do like to buy and read new rules (playing is another matter) However, even this habit will be resisted. To help in this matter I have deleted some gaming news feeds, to try and reduce the temptation.   

Now to be realistic, this is not a lifetime ban on purchases, that would be impossible, but a major reduction in spending and acquiring new stuff can only be considered a good thing. In addition to the reduction of new purchases, I am looking at reusing and re-purposing existing stuff. Case in point are some American Vietnam M113 carriers that will hopefully see a new life as Sci-fi low tech troop transports.

More on that later...

Last two games played for this year

Managed to squeeze in a couple of games of Sentinels of the Multiverse before the end of the decade, sadly with all to familiar results. We tried out 2 villains that we had not fought before, and watch of us took on a hero that we had not played before.

Well the chosen heroes were good, however the villains worked out to counter any good aspects that they had. On the plus side they dispatched us with such speed that we were able to play two games and still have spare time.

It does mean that in 2019 we played board games at least 75 times, and we played 37 different games.
Sentinels certainly stands out as the most played games, at 24 times.

Pulp Alley and What a Tanker were the most played miniature games in 2019.

I was also able to play a few games of the RPG Chivalry & Sorcery, a long time favorite of  mine. We got through one introductory adventure, that explored the hidden background of the main character, and opened up a major reworking, and deeper exploration of the world.

Another board game weekend, and catching up on some other recently played board games

This weekend we set up another game of Defenders of the Realm. It went a lot longer than the first time we played it and it felt like we had a better chance to win, despite some bad dice rolls, and disjointed tactics by me. We still lost, but had killed one general, so, better than last time.

Future project?!?

 Not certain what I will do with this, but who doesn't need a 16" Godzilla!

Godzilla resting on my easy chair in the game room, after all if you are Godzilla you pretty much sit where you want to!

Another nice item from Value Village (the radar dish is from my parts box)

This certainly has seen better days, but I think there is enough to make something from it. It is missing some doors, and maybe some weapons (I see holes that I assume would hold weapons)
Certainly good bones, and doors and weapons can easily be replaced.

What to do, what to do? (Subtitle: A privilege problem)

As 2019 draws to a close, I ponder the imponderable, what shall I do in the new year?
This is no mere traditional end of a year/new year resolution thing (I do not like traditions, particularly the whole tradition of New Year resolutions). It is true, that I am assessing my involvement in the gaming hobby, evaluating my interest level and trying to come up with some idea of what I will do in the new year. I'm sure you know the thought patterns; what will I work on, should I just play board games, how do I motivate myself to tackle the unpainted pile, how do I become more productive, will I ever pick up a paint brush again, that sort of thing.

Beyond the whole gaming introverted navel gazing, another non gaming matter is impacting on my life, namely that as of January 2020 I transition from the ranks of the employed to a retired man of leisure.

UPDATE 12/22

It's a bug hunt

This past weekends game day turned out to be a board game day. While the siege game was indeed still set up, the participants decided to forgo playing it out to it's conclusion. Instead the Aliens board game occupied most of the afternoon! Who am I to argue?

It's baaackk!

The powers that be have seen fit to return the missing part. Keen eyes will no doubt note that this is essentially the same picture that I previously used, just filtered a bit differently. Rest assured the actual part has returned to me, appearing before my eyes on the floor. The fact that I was finally cleaning my room just prior to a Saturday game day surly had nothing to do with it, as I still maintain that it was poltergeists!  Certainly where it appeared was at least three feet, and on the other side of the table from where I sat and where I had placed the part originally.

Once found I immediately reunited the part with the other piece in the pictured container.

I would of course show you a picture of the two together, if not for the fact that two days after the return of the missing part, I , well, I seem to have somehow mislaid the container. Surely the spirits would not be so cruel as to take it a second time.

Well at least they are together once again, somewhere in my room....

Sigh!