Lets deal with the procrastination first. It’s all about me not completing my blog for over a month. It’s not as though I haven’t been busy with my hobby. Far from it. With several fantastic games that I have played with friends, to reasonable progress on my painting projects, there’s been plenty going on. I just haven’t been motivated to write about it!
I’ll start with the gaming. I met with Pete Harris and Edgar Gillock over at Boards and Swords in Derby for a Bill Hooks play through. What made this special was that Edgar was visiting from the USA and was able to get some gaming time in whilst over here. It was a lovely afternoon and great to meet Edgar.
My next game was an Indian Wars encounter at Andy’s place. We were using the ‘rules for old wargamers with short memories’ rules set written by Andy some years ago. We also tried out some new Ideas for scouting using scrabble blocks and magnets. You will have to wait to see if this sees the light of day in the future but it was good fun and I can see another ‘Bill Hooks’ supplement coming from this early play test.
The following week found me play testing my version of Samurai Bill Hooks or ‘Never Mind the Naganitas’. This was a large affair with five players and in excess of 200points per side. All went well and lessons were learnt – the 6th draft of the rules is now completed ready for the next test.
Perhaps my favourite battle of the month was a Black Powder battle on Pete Harris’s wonderful Spanish Village board – the battle for Foz d’Arouce. We had played this as a demo a couple of times at events and as you can see the scenery is superb.
The highlight, or from the French point of view ( I was playing on the French side), the low light, was following a superb flanking move, the French attack column lost a combat it should really have won and then failed its morale test to rout. As if this was not bad enough, the cascading morale tests saw another four, yes, four consecutive rolls of just three from two dice to send the whole of the French right wing from the table! Despite the incredible run of bad luck, it was still a most enjoyable game and a pleasure to be playing Napoleonic’s again.
As for painting, I have been working my way through building Samurai units but as a ‘rest’ in between I have been painting some single ‘personality’ figures that I have picked up.
So I finished Lady Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings magazine collection – I have now reached issue 35 of 91. I also completed two ‘Giants in Miniature’ both favourite characters of mine. Lord Flashheart and Flashman of George McDonald Fraser fame.
My final personality figure was the giveaway at Partizan 2024, a fictional figure Sir D’isgny based on the family from the village of Norton Disney nearby Newark. As you can see. I have yet to finish the basing as he is in a batch with the Duke of Monmouth ( the free personality figure from Hammerhead) and a Samurai unit.
I’m still working through Samurai units. The unit of 12 mainly Footsore ‘Warring Clans’ figures are all but complete. Perhaps my next blog will feature these in more detail. Again, these are nearly complete now but need the tufts on the bases to finish them off.
So that’s it for now. A busy and fulfilling hobby month for me. My painting has been a bit hit and miss but the lead pile hasn’t grown too much and a few more figures have been added to my collection.
Happy Modelling!