To the Strongest, Dragon Rampant - News you can use

Hi All,

Just wanted to share a few things that came across my "desk" that you may find useful.

Simon sent out another To the Strongest newsletter. There are some new free army lists available here, as well as more aids for playing TtS. What also interested me was a listing of battle reports. I'm going to paste it here for my reference and for others who may be interested.

Sightings of To the Strongest! on the Web

A good many games of TtS! have been played since the last newsletter- here are some links that I have found (apologies in advance if I have missed your game!).

• The 1000footgeneral has a bash; I love the way he marks out his grid, I plan to nick that!
• Scrivs helps to spread the word.  Lovely Punics... 
• "Emperor" Barry Lee introduced some friends to the game in Bristol.
• Mate Aaron Bell in Japan who did sterling proofing work plays a couple of games.
• His opponent Luke Ueda-Sarson enjoyed the same games but reckons I need an editor!  He's not wrong. Form a line. :-)
• Glorygeek mate Richard Crawley does it in 6mm.
• Goliad has tweaked the rules for the Renaissance.  His game looks stunning!  
• The Baron does it with Orcs and Romans.... and again
• Bevan Marchand has been playing ECW.  I'm looking at TYW and ECW variants at the moment.
• Mate Darrell Hindley has been trying the rules out for the 100 Years War. 
• This is a great looking game from the Wargaming Magpie, using the new Forged in Battle 15's. 
• http://aberdeenwargamesclub.com/2015/06/16062015/
• And last, but very much not least, James "Olicanalad" Roach has been giving the rules a thrashing in his lovely games room.

If you are organising a game, please take photos and post on your blog of choice, or mail to me and I'll post them on the BigRedBatCave, so that we can spread the word...

(Simon let me know if you don't approve of this)

I need to get off my duff and play these rules.

I also wanted to let you know that Dragon Rampant is finally available for pre-order on Amazon in the US. If you didn't know, this is the adaptation of Lion Rampant to a fantasy setting.

And lastly, I posted over on A Tale of Several Gamers about the Arrer Boyz, go check the blog out and give the people there some mojo for working on their stuff.

And I still need to dig out my hobby space for stuff for the giveaway.

Colony 87, Cardboard Warriors, and Ray's giveaway

Hi All,

I should have been posting regularly the last few days, but you know how it goes. I just wanted to clue you in on a few things that are time sensitive.

Colony 87 Kickstarter

These awesome looking Sci-Fi civilians are wrapping up today. I don't have any other Sci-Fi 28mm at the moment, unless the Space Hulk plastics count, but I plan to get a few soon for Necromunda type games.


You can find it here. As of this writing it's got less than 24hrs left to go.

Cardboard Warriors Nepal Charity Bundle

I got an email from Billiam Babble of Inked adventures the other day telling me of this great product which you can find here. A great deal on paper terrain and figures and a good cause. I'm not sure how long this one will run.

Ray's 500th blog post giveaway

You know him, you love him, Ray is having a fantastic looking giveaway that ends on the 15th. So get you submissions in here. Or don't, and let me have a better chance at winning something. Hopefully I can win something from him again, I did once before.

So a lot of stuff to look at. I have to run off to Home Depot and buy a replacement Kitchen faucet. The column on mine seized and I apparently broke it trying to lubricate the column so that I could actually turn the damn thing. I also base coated those Altengard figures. I couldn't spray because it was too windy so I had to do it all by hand. We're also still only part way through Knight's Quest. I think I lost the boy. More on that later.

Stevo's Age of Arthur competition!

Hi All,

The frenzy that is the painting challenge, combined with the realization that Christmas is almost upon us, has consumed much of my consciousness. I therefore have had even more than usual flooding my brain to the point that it has been difficult to form a coherent post on a single topic. Let's see how I do here.

Stevo, of Stevo's mini Soldiers, is having a giveaway here. It is for a copy of the Warhammer Historical title "Age of Arthur". He has the usual requirements for a giveaway, follow the blog, leave a comment with the addition of showing some of your Dark Age figures. This is where I put it off, because I'm embarrassed at how my Dark Age project has stalled. So, without further ado, here are my Saxon and Viking warbands, armies, what have you.

The Dark Ages, ages darker than anyone ever imagined:

Saxons from Imex and Revell with two MiniArt Germans.

A mix of Imex and Zvezda Vikings.

So, as you can see, they need some work. You may have noticed that I used the gamey convention of color coding.  I was painting these for the Talomir Tales Rally Round the King (RRtK) project for the forces of Tereken (Anglo-Saxon) and Mirholme (Viking). Initially I was the Viking player, but I defeated myself in a series of battles with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. So now I am them. Bother.

The Anglo-Saxons (Tereken) are ostensibly Green and Yellow, the peasants more subdued. The vikings are supposed to be Red and Blue, I can only make out Red. I just found that, looking at multiple Saga battle reports, it became increasingly difficult to tell who was who with realistically painted figures.

And to prove that you can actually win stuff from Stevo, here's a picture of the Zombies I won that arrived yesterday.

The box was a little worse for wear, but everything inside was intact. These guys look like good, campy, fun. They might even make it into the challenge. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Two more items.

I set foot in a Games Workshop store for the first time ever yesterday and it was a pleasant experience. The guy on duty was nice and helpful and the two gentlemen seemed normal, aside from being there in the middle of the afternoon. Perhaps they were on their lunch break. (I do note the irony in my judging people for being there at the exact time that I am.) I bought some basing materials and listened to detailed space marine list recounting in the background. Although I still get some sticker shock at the cost of models I do like some of them. The lure of free shipping on orders I place through the store is a good one too. I'll go back, with my son in tow, in the new year.

Lastly, I'd like to welcome Baconfat of Baconfat Log. He is a fellow challenger and has painted some really nice Riders of Rohan.

Thanks for stopping by.

Loki's Giveaway, White Dwarf Buildings and updates

If you haven't heard, Loki is doing a year long series of giveaways to celebrate 2014 and the growing success of his blog. You can read all about it here. Be sure to get you entry in before 0900 GMT on February 1st.

I almost let this post slip through the cracks, but over at Realm of Chaos 80's he has built one of the Warhammer buildings that had plans published in White Dwarf. You can see his here. I think I still have the plans somewhere and I actually built two back in the 90's. You can see mine in a post here. I'm considering redoing the thatched roof as it was never really fixed down and has been constantly shedding for 20 some odd years.

I'll also have to dig up the barn and forge project. I started it but never got it past gluing the foam core to the base.

Painting has fallen victim to lagging energy levels, but on the plus side I survived two workout sessions and a return to full contact in San Soo. Of course my next technique would have to be a throw. The general rule is you have it done to you first before you get to do it to someone else. It certainly makes you want to be as gentle as possible because these things hurt, a lot.

But I have been organizing those pesky 1/72 forces. For Treyine I'm going with a white and red color scheme (I know real original)and to break up the monotony I figured out how I want to vary things. One group is solid red, the other quarterly and the last halved vertically (per pale). This will add some visual interest to the army and be less boring to paint. I still need to work on the Stygustan army but I may steal Loki's idea for his Nubians and color code the breach clouts.

I also need to work on the Hero entry for the challenge. I'm going small and achievable. Seems like my general course of action for the challenge.

And thanks to Joakim of The Miniatures Man I won the Chainmail Heroes set in his giveaway. Very cool and thanks again.

*Edited to put in links I forgot. Doh!*

Promoting a giveaway, my son's presents and wash woes

Hi All,

Just want to quickly promote Joakim's giveaway over at The Miniatures Man. He's celebrating passing 50K views and giving away some cool stuff.

As for my son's swag, first we have the snap together A-10 we put together.

A nice little mode, my son cut most of the model off the sprue. He also put together the large peices. the little stuff he needed me for. No glue or painting needed, a great kit for an aspiring little modeler. The bombs were a little fiddly for him.

Next up, Darth Vader. This dude is about 3 feet tall and awesome. Push a button on his chest and he says stuff. Not a lot, but enough.

Last thing you see before he chokes the life out of you.

I'm trying to get those plastic GW orcs done, but the GW Orc flesh wash worked terribly. It basically colored the high points and completely evaporated from the nooks and crannies. In the old days I used Winsor Newton Green ink, but that dried up long ago. I put in an order for  some acrylic inks through Dick Blick art supplies, following Les Bursley's suggestion in his wash guide.

Hopefully I can get this sorted. I've also decided that I need to finish painting up the forces of Treyine and Stygustan to fight my next battle. Many of these were started before the challenge so will be either ineligible or for less than full points. Either way they need to be painted.

Pre-Holiday update

Up before 4AM as the weight of how much stuff I still have to do, hobby and otherwise, is keeping me from sleeping.

I have been remiss in welcoming Twin Cities Gamer aka Monty L from Google+ as a follower of the blog. His blog of the same name has some great looking Dark Age stuff on there right now as well as an interesting article about inventory management. I took it to heart.

I also wanted to promote a give away that Captain Arjun is having at Cor Blog Me here. He is giving away two bundles of rules, one Medieval and one Indian Mutiny. You have until the end of the month. His blog has a lot of good stuff on it, lately a solo dungeon crawl with some Dwarves battling Goblins through the mines.

As for me I'm still planning and cleaning house. Funny how you don't notice all the peeling plaster etc until you have company coming.

Finally I'll leave you with a teaser of an old Citadel figure that I intend to try my hand at stripping and re-painting for the painting challenge.

He was initially painted by my brother, and to be fair I don't think he ever read up on any painting techniques. I think he said he was trying to go for the armor being soaked in blood. I'm trying to decide if I  want to use the shield or not. It seems a little campy to me.

I'll be soaking this dude in simple green and see how it goes. I've never attempted to strip paint off a figure before.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and catch you on the flip side.

New battle report, Sam's giveaway and tracking down Sun of York.

Well the latest installment of Talomir Tales is up here. If you have a chance leave some feedback as to how I did on the report. Was it clear, did it give you a feel for the game? I'm trying to improve my reports so that they help others make an informed decision as to whether or not the rules might be ones they want to try.

Sam of Sam's mini world is having a giveaway to celebrate his birthday and his bloggiversary here. The usual entry rules apply and you can win a nifty Mithril miniature as well as read an interesting blog by a talented modeler and painter.

I've also tracked down Sun of York's blog. It is called One Sided Miniature Wargaming Discourse and has some nice 1/72 napoleonics on display at the moment.

I now have to write an essay, which is 40% of my score, for my entry into this fat loss contest I've been in for the last 90 days. I wish I could get you guys to vote for me, but you need to be members of the club. So wish me luck. I've been on a hydration schedule that saw me drink 6.5 gallons of water over the last five days. Today I'm cutting it back and actually pretty thirsty.

I'll let you know how it goes.

And remember to:

Loki's and Monty's giveaways and what's next

This time I'll promote the giveaways up front.

Loki, in celebration of garnering his 200th follower is giving away a magnificently painted Scots Warlord. You can enter for the draw here.

Monty is commemorating his 50,000 page view with a two part giveaway. I mentioned the first part in the last post, the second part is here. Put your name in for some great 1/72 kits.

Just before starting to type this I happened across the latest update by Anna Meyer to her Greyhawk map on her blog here. I'm still waiting for it to finish loading.

As far as projects go, well....

I have to fight out Tropilium vs. Stygustan 3 (or is it 4) without completing the figures. I see a pattern developing here. I've almost completely color blocked the Tropilium side but I've worked in fits and starts and just haven't been able to make the time when I've needed to.

So fight this battle, write it up. Jump on a play test I got mailed the other day, then try my damnedest to finish these guys before moving on to the Altenburg stuff. Although I may do the basing and priming to break up the monotony.

I'm hoping to do the A-Z book post and I want to encourage something for November, but I need to get cracking.

I'll leave you with Pervy IT Guy.

That map is still loading. I've cancelled it and will try again.

My funky stats and Monty's prize draw

Hi All,

Not posting as frequently as I'd like but sort of muddling along and making a bit of progress. There has been some talk and sharing of stats of late and I thought I'd get in on the topic as I am a stats nerd at heart, even if I have little aptitude for being a true statistician.

First off the page view numbers, while they can give you the warm fuzzies, are never going to be a true reflection of the "success" of your blog. There are too many bots and vagaries of the internet to really know how many souls are actually reading your stuff. Also take into account that feed readers tend not to give you page views it is all together possible that people are actually reading your stuff and it's just not tracking. So what I'm trying to say is that don't let your page views numbers get in your head for good or bad.

Numbers of followers. This number feels a little more personal. "They like me, they really like me." It is nice to get new followers, and it does feel a tad sad when one drops off, even if I can't tell who it was, but keep in mind that people can also follow your blog without actually subscribing via the followers widget. I also try to follow back everyone who follows me, so let me know if I've some how missed your blog.

Comments. To me it is the interaction with other bloggers via comments that is the true fun of blogging. I know that it can seem daunting to comment on some of the more popular blogs, and you may really not have anything more to say than "me too" but it's a simple way to show that you actually read and care about what someone had to say.

So on to the numbers. As of writing this I have. 131 Followers and 82484 page views.

I added the flag counter in September as I was interested in more than just the top 10 countries. The top ten all time are:

Well on my way to be New Zealand's fourth most popular 1/72 scale fantasy blog promoting Two Hour Wargames.

My views took a hit when I ditched dynamic views, you can see the time I used it between January and July of this year.

Getting back to respectable monthly numbers of a little over 3K per month.

This is coming from 259 posts and 1493 comments. Take into consideration that I answer most comments so we'll say that I have 745 comments from viewers.

It's interesting to see what you all like:

Most popular search terms

 In one of the views a few people were looking for my friend Ashley Salazar, but I guess that's not the main reason people find me. I've also had a few people land on the page looking for Olivia Munn.

Most popular posts.

 I'm glad the Sexy miniatures post has broken through to the top spot, I think it may be the most commented on post on my blog. I've never really been sure why the next three were so popular. Go figure.

Not all bots.

I'm surprised that referer and vampirestat aren't more than 381 pageviews out of my 82,483. Not too bad.

So thanks for reading the blog and commenting. I just want to encourage anyone who has started a blog to not worry about the numbers. Share yourself and your passion and get out there and network with other bloggers. It's easier than all that painting and modelling. ;)

Now, if your still here, you need to know about Monty's giveaway here. He's passed 50K views and has a great blog. So follow him, leave a comment and possibly win some kit.

Welcome to Sun of York. Thanks for following and commenting. You friend connect doesn't list your blog so please let me know if you have one.

That's it for this one. Kids homework and Football practice before going to the gym. Bleh.

Palouse Wargaming Giveaway, Trebian's Article and project creep.

Apparently you all like posts that range around a bit as the last one garnered about two and a half times the normal hits.

Palouse Wargaming Journal Giveaway

Palouse Wargaming Journal is having a giveaway for its one year anniversary. Interesting looking blog and you get the usual extra chances to win by promoting. Go have a look.

Trebian's Article

Aaron over at Here's no great matter turned me on to an article on Trebian's blog about finishing projects here. For many of you the advice is not necessary, as you are very prolific painters. I have only ever finished maybe one or two units and Fladnag, so I took this article to heart a little bit. Although I had already ordered more stuff, which I'll detail next, I think I have a plan back in place. That plan is to set aside a daily painting time, finish the Tropilium and Stygustan figures then jump to Warlord Paul's Oldhammer scenario and then to Chris Stoeson's ACW scenario. I definitely need to buy some ACW cavalry for that last project, I think I already have buildings and terrain items that can cut across these already purchased, if not built.

Project Creep

As hinted at I have gone on a buying binge again, maybe binge is too strong, and bought some figures for some projects that I intend to do further on down the road. Splintered Light Miniatures had a sale so I snapped up some 20mm Ratmen, Lizard Men and Beastmen. I'll show them to you in a follow up. I also think I have all the figures necessary for Warlord Paul's scenario, but I would like to buy some 15mm orcs to proxy as goblins. I will however resist and use what I have for now.

Random news for today

I'm feeling a little loopy today, just tired I guess, but there have been a few interesting things I've read about today that I wanted to share.

First there is this truly amazing chart comparing sizes of almost every starship you can think of over on Deviant Art. I heard about it on Old School Gamers and then again on the Hive Zero blog here.

Chris Stoeson is having a giveaway over at Wargamer's Odds and Ends here. In celebration of 300+ posts and his birthday if I remember correctly. Anyway go check him out. The prizes are some limited edition 28mm figures for Sharp Practice, some 15mm armor and the scenario books that he sells. Pretty awesome. You can read a review of his latest over on Ray's blog here.

There is also a rumbling over on the THW forums, from Ed himself, that the 5150 big battle rules might be underway. Another step closer to replaying Squad Leader with THW mechanics. Although if I had any imagination I could probably just figure it out for myself.

I think the caffeine is finally kicking in and the children are restless for homework assistance. Sorry I don't have time for invigorating photos today.

Anne's Awesome (and super secret) giveaway.

Just a quick one today. The not so well kept secret is out, and you may already be entered without knowing it. Anne over at O'Leary Miniatures is have a super secret giveaway on her blog here. The offerings are very good and honestly it is exciting just to be in the running.This give away is being sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt. You can find Mr. Hatt's Amazon Writers Page at http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC. Best of luck to everyone whose gotten their name in and I have been lucky enough to win something from Anne once before, so hopefully I still have a little luck left.

I finally found my d10's, they were inside the boxes for Munchkin bites and Munchkin Cthulhu. I think I had the bright idea to use them for level counters. I discovered them just before my horrific loss at Munchkin Bites.

Here is my updated dice challenge table.

Die	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Avg.
d4	2	4	4	2	2	4	4	4	3	4	3.3
d6	6	4	3	4	2	5	5	2	1	5	3.7
d8	2	6	1	4	3	3	5	1	6	4	3.5
d10	3	4	8	3	1	5	3	2	5	9	4.3
d12	5	6	5	8	10	6	5	12	9	4	7
d20	2	17	1	17	8	6	17	19	9	8	10.4
d100	94	60	36	96	34	62	27	50	36	32	52.7

Fairly poor on the d10 but just about average on the d100.

Ray asked to see the visor in action, and I finally figured out how to work my webcam, so here are a couple of shots.

I'm wearing my glasses underneath. And for fun some more Ladies of Metal, after the break.

Promoting Edwin's giveaway, with extra real life

I've been meaning to post for several days now but have really been dragging.

Check out the giveaway over at Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist here. He's got some quite excellent looking books up as prizes.

I'm still plugging away at my Romans and Egyptians for Talomir, you can read about the latest campaign update here. Because both Javier and I are players, who happen to live in separate countries, someone else will play out our battle. Honestly I think it is stupid for Tereken to goad Altengard like it is, but there are many forces driving us to war. I had hoped that Altengard would remain focused on the larger threat of Treyine, since they are now the largest empire.

I'll have some more progress shots in a day or so as I get caught back up. Of course since I had to dip into my box of Nubians to fill out the Stygustan archers I had to research how to paint African flesh and buy more paint. I'll share with you what I found.

In real life my training and body composition are going fairly well, but I over did it on Sunday with a run, heavy leg training and then two hours of San Soo practice. Today is the first day that my left leg didn't feel like it was going to fall off. I'm now third in the club and 69th company wide, so I'm making positive progress. ***Update on the numbers, 3rd and 69th were last week. After this weeks results I'm 1st in the club and 21st nationally. Yeah me.***

I had a minor incident yesterday on the way to pick my kids up from school. It was a half day and I was biking over there as usual. An SUV with an undetermined number of teens came up behind me and yelled out the window as they passed. Being the sort of gentleman I am I gave them the one finger salute. That prompted the one who had his head out the window to tell me how he was going to violate my mother. Well obviously this is something that demands an immediate response, and I assure you dear readers that I was not found wanting. I said something to the effect of  "Try it you little (rhymes with rock chucker)" and found myself hoping that they would get out of the car so I could beat the living shit out of the entire bunch of them. I assume there were at least three. The crossing guard and one of the mothers heard me, but felt I was justified. I'm glad there weren't any children around but honestly I would not have been able to respond differently even if there were.

Here's a little San Soo to help drive home the image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsldwsyyfHQ

(youtube is being problematic and won't let me embed this video)

I'm also apparently having an issue saving my facebook photos so sharing those with you is proving problematic. Too bad, as I had a couple of good ones.

And finally I'd like to welcome Ray Hepburn. No blog listed in your profile. Please let me know if you have one.

And here is a quick picture for you:

Promoting a couple of things, and trying to stay motivated.

I wanted to take the time today to promote a few blogs that have come across my radar. First, as you may have heard, The Laughing Ferret is having a pretty spectacular giveaway over on his blog here.

Since I am perhaps one of the worst offenders for using the word that rhymes with imp in reference to blog promotion, I feel  that precludes me from entering the contest. My use of it is not to promote a certain lifestyle etc., but really just to be a little campy. Perhaps I need to re-think it, I don't know.

I any event go and join his blog and read some interesting stuff, see some fantastically painted miniatures, and maybe win some swag.

Second, while I am promoting things, I'd like to bring your attention to a blog that is really quite good. At last check Lost Wargamer in HK had only 6 followers. I find this quite shocking as he paints quite well, sets up a nice table, and is playing out a very interesting Zombie/ Weird War II campaign at the moment. Do yourself a favor and check him out.

I'm dragging my feet on my minis right now. I took the day off from exercise and thought I'd get a lot done, but it hasn't happened. On the plus side I've dropped 2.6 % body fat in the three weeks since we started and only lost  about 2 Lbs in body weight. I'm in 63rd place nationally within the Club and 3rd among the men in my club. Not too bad.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, nothing feels right to put up today. Take it easy.