Welcome Followers

Some of the blogs I follow have a nice feature where they say hello to new followers and plug that followers blog at the end of their posts. I do not have many followers, or posts, but I have been remiss in extending this courtesy and would like to take this opportunity to make ammends.

Dan from The Command Tent has a nice blog which has focused on Dark Age skirmish gaming of late. Dan and I seem to share a lot of interests and after reading his blog I decided to start collecting 1/72 and blogging about it. This in turn led to Dan switching to 28mm (Doh!).

Paul of Paul's Bods needs no introduction. His site is full of fantastic painting, modeling and photography. I find myself ever excited by the possibilities and humbled by the skill that he presents on his page.

Ray of Don't Throw a 1 throws in a lot of history with his posts. His tastes are very ecclectic and his painting is also top notch. He also posts some very nice battle flags. I like the viking ones especially.

Paul of the Man Cave first caught my interest with his Dark Age campaign. I found the Age of Blood rule set through him and have attempted to start my own campaign. He also is currently playing a lot of Blood Bowl, which has piqued my interest. He is also a fellow brewer. Skal!

Dale of Dale's Wargames has several blogs but this one has a lot of interesting game theory and batrep analysis. He got me dangerously close to playing Flames of War but I still can't take the plunge.

Rodger of Rebel Barracks captured my interest with photos of his Viking Raid game and I've stayed because of the great painting and scenery he posts.

Wardy-La of Gjallarhorn offers more great Dark Age inspiration. I love his Viking horde.

Lorenzo Calvi just recently joined. I'm afraid I don't see your blog. I too did not, and may still not, have google friend connect setup to show my blog. I may need to send you an email to find out yours. His blog is Zerloon Place. He has some good painting tips and lots of photos. It seems that the Two Hour Wargames bug has bitten him as well, an interesting looking Zombie game. I need to play with the other titles some more first, but ATZ is on my list.

Peter Bonami also just recently joined. I am also not sure if you have a blog. I see you are friends with Paul of Paul's Bods, could you be from Peter's Cave? Yes I see that is the case. Another great site. Fantastic painting and very original figures.

Well that's all for now. Welcome all, and I hope to have posts that are worthy of a following. In the future I will acknowledge followers as I see them.

*[Edited to look like I can complete a thought, and again to add Lorenzo's blog]

Quis Sanguinis

(This cool picture is from http://withfriendship.com/user/sathvi/blood-bowl.php)

All the posts of late about Blood Bowl posted on http://corblogme.blogspot.com/ and http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/ have got me thinking about playing this game. I highly recommend these two blogs, but specifically Captain Arjun's post http://corblogme.blogspot.com/2011/09/getting-started-with-blood-bowl-on.html

He has lots of good suggestions for making pitches, dugouts and figures inexpensively. This got me thinking, why couldn't I convert 1/72 figs just as easily as 28mm? I believe you could keep all the dimensions the same, you would just have smaller figures on slightly smaller bases.

Mind you, I have never been great at conversions and have never even painted let alone converted a 1/72 fig. But I think it might be worth a try.

So I'm going to call this project Quis Sanguinis or blood bowl in Google Translate from English to Latin. Note: Google Translate did not like capitals at all.

I got the rules from here http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/Rules.shtml on that site version 5 was the latest.

Soft Apocalypse

Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh

 I have been on something of a post apocalypse kick lately, watching Blood of Heroes, The Book of Eli and the Road. This last Sunday while in LA I picked up this book and finished it this morning. I would have finished it sooner, but I ran out of light on the drive home and had to force myself to go to bed last night so I could get 5 hours of sleep.

 The story is very engaging and takes you along with Jasper as he tries to survive in the world slowly falling apart. It starts in 2023 and jumps varying amounts of time to the conclusion in 2033. There is a little bit of sci fi future stuff, but mostly it seems very current. The best way I can describe it is sort of like the prequel to Mad Max. Society is still functioning but there is 40% unemployment and gangs and tribes of the dispossessed.

 It seems like a great atmosphere to game. You're just trying to survive. Police, Fireman (which are now just another armed gang), thugs, Jumpy-Jumps (some kind of anarchistic group that wear random uniforms [Priest, Mailman, Milkman etc] and wantonly kill, Civil Defense and Army are all a potential threat. Not to mention being killed by people who think you are trying to rob them or bring disease to there community.

  Did I forget to mention eco-terrorists and designer viruses like Polio-X and flesh eating bacteria? Any way it seems like Two Hour Wargames would fit the bill nicely, perhaps the Zombie titles have all of those various ingredients in them already. Take out the zombies and you have it.

Anyhow here's the link to amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Soft-Apocalypse-Will-McIntosh/dp/159780276X

and to a more coherent review: http://escapepod.org/2011/03/30/book-review-soft-apocalypse-by-will-mcintosh/

I liked it, but then I also liked the Conan movie.

No more theoretical gaming!

As the years go by I find myself being more of a theoretician. By that I mean that I copiously read books and the internet, dreaming up campaigns and house rules and then never actually gaming. Part of it is time, part of it is snobbery (must have fully painted figs and terrain), and part of it is fear (there are some amazing figures and terrain out there).

But enough is enough. I need to get to some actual gaming and stop dragging my feet. Life is too short not to spend time "pushing little men around a table" as my wife would say.