Can't help it, show and tell - Old Glory Ox Cart set

My September Old Glory order came in. I got a War of the Roses Civilians w/ Ox Drawn Cart set from Old Glory:
From the site

I could not wait to get home so here it is on my work desk, an "unboxing" if you will...

You get:
large cart (4 wheels) full of hay
small cart (2 wheels) full of hay
2 ox (1 per cart)
axles and wheels for the above
yokes and harness
ox horns
lady with a shoulder bag
lady with a bucket
lady
2 men with sacks over shoulder
man with a "Tudor" gown and box cap
man with short jacket and box cap
man
2 men with a boar on a spit

$39 was the price, 40% off for Old Glory Army discount = 23.40 and about $5 shipping and handling made it under $30 and I think that's a good deal.

Solid metal, even the carts (which I found amazing). The molds are a bit rough and the assembly required is not intuitive - mainly you get 2 "male" pips on an axle that are supposed to fit a single "female" part on the cart. Good thing I have the tools and skill to just do the pinning I need to do to make it work.

The civilians are a later medieval period; they are from the War of the Roses line of 25s. They will fit fine into SAGA's Escort Scenario as well as any early to medieval period games I may pick up (Lion Rampant??)

All I really want now is some sheep/pigs/chickens.

Again, sorry for what seems to me to be an incomplete post or a simple "unboxing and desktop". I'm not into those as I come from a forum board (Zombie Squad) where that is shunned by some including me, and I was a mod there! Bottom line, I view gear as a thing you've got to use for a year or so before you've an opinion on it. Too many people just buy the thing and desktop review it and call it a day and that there is pretty bad reviewing in my opinion.

I couldn't help it with this though and I am learning the difference between "knife I must depend on in the woods" and "fun minis!" If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll try to answer them.

One-Love!!

September Historical Wargames Day atGuardian

One down, hoping for many more to go.

Though I did not get an opportunity to try any new games I was able to get 3 games of Saga in. I played a 4 point Clash of the Warlords, a 2nd one with my opponent being a first-timer named James being coached by Kyle, and a 3rd game against Kyle that was a my Normans vs. his Anglo-Danes in some Bridge Battle action.

The first game was a simple 4 point warm-up for Kyle and I. We were also in "demo-mode" explaining the game to some people watching, about 4 people.

By round 3 I was able to get my Val'Serkers into the tall grass and around the Anglo-Dane Warlord. The die roll was brutal and my Vikings took the game!

What makes the grass grow!?

A bunch of hits, that's what makes the grass grow.

The next game was against a new guy that wanted to try out the game. I switched out my Val'Serkers for some Hearthguard and we went 4 points. Kyle coached him. The game started strong but even both of us being the aggressor. I made my move losing 7 of 8 warriors but also doing some damage to the Anglo-Danes but they were able to react with my Warlord being exposed.

Uh-Oh! Viking Warlord left exposed.

Moving in for the kill...

... and the kill.

The 3rd game was my Normans with William the Bastard leading them versus Kyle's Anglo-Danes. We went 6 points and Battle at the Ford.

The Normans lost a close one and it was my mistake. I had the game won, 6th round I was looking at taking a knee and just waiting until the 7th and last round. I decided to get creative and take out the Anglo-Dane levy left on the AD side of the river. My plan did not work out as I had planned and the smart thing would've been to just hold back but I did not. This left William the Bastard open to a nice ranged attack from the remaining AD levy that indeed killed him. This took me down from the 11-10 lead to 8-10. Round 7 was a lot of non-action from either side as there was not much for the Normans to do with no warlord and across a river to the Anglo-Danes on the other side and out of range of the Norman archers and crossbows.

Edit:
We got done AT 6pm. I went home, had dinner with my wife and watched some TV. Then I got up and went to Dante's to see High on Fire with the afore-mentioned Kyle and his friend. Have you not seen High on Fire? You must, hardest working metal genius in the world.
Here's a pretty current set from April of this year.

September - Disaster Preparedness Month

Before we end September next week, which will be Gretcen and I's 2 year anniversary...

What an awesome day, sunny and 73 degrees, one of my best memories.

... let's talk about some basic things you can do to bolster your home and family for the coming winter.

First, an accounting of the Rule of Threes:

You will survive only...

... 3 hours without shelter

... 3 days without water

... 3 weeks without food

There's more but those are the basics for us common folks.

I'm not going to talk about tactical gear or much about guns, read further for boring yet essential stuff.

Shelter:

1) Make sure your insurance (renter's or home) is up to date. 

2) Now is the time for repairs, at least in our area as the weather is mild. Summer would've been best but you've still got time.

3) Think about what is a common natural disaster in your area. Get supplies for that now. Bags of landscape sand, tarps, boards, snow shovel, rock salt, trash bags, utility cordage... stuff like that.

4) Check your tools or update your tool kit. Hammer, nails, screws, screwdriver, wrenches, duct tape, glue.

5) Clothes. Make sure your winter coat is good or look into getting a new one. Socks and shoes. Hat and scarf. GLOVES!!

6) Blankets, time to get them winter throw blankets out.

7) Alternate heating system. Think about how to heat your home if the primary heating system were to go out. Our primary is electric, secondary would be our fireplace. I need to get some wood. The chimney has been swept.

Water:

First, The last 2 years we, in Portland, have had water situations. Both times the local news showed people going to the market and panic-buying water. My own Brother in Law went to Costco and it took him 3 hours to buy some cases of water.

General rule is gallon of water per person per day. This includes hygiene and food prep. I have a family of three plus three cats to care for - 4 gallons per day is my calculation. 5 days of fresh water (20 gallons) is my goal. Sounds hard? Just do this:

Buy:

Five Gallon Water Jug

Things to remember:

1) Cycle the water every 6 months or so. I use these for car camping so it's how I cycle through them. 

2) When I fill them I will add just a couple of drops of bleach to keep it clean in storage. This is not to purify, just keep things clean.

3) Water is heavy, five gallons of water will weigh over 35 pounds. If you will have difficulty carrying 35 pounds than take a different approach.

4) Learn to filter and purify. Learn the difference between the 2.

In a nutshell - 

Filtering gets "stuff" out of the water: dirt, pollution like mercury and DDT, bugs, motor oil, solid things like that. Some filters go down to the micron level and will pull microbes out too but that is not common.

Purifying kills things at a microbe level like crypto and Ecoli. This is done with bleach, UV light, boiling.

There are a ton of ways to explore filtration and purification.

That's it for now.... off to Historical Wargames Day at Guardian Games!

Edit: 

I failed to mention duct-tape and batteries. Have a good supply of both as both can save your bacon. Now is a good time to switch batteries out of flashlights, not when you need the flashlights. Personally I switch out my "utility" lights every October (my personal use lights get switched out more regularly as I use them all the time).

Crazy September!

Well, from my rather sedentary life as a Portland Working Stiff, it was crazy.

Finished off my performances of The Telling Portland 2014 and it was good. I was nervous every night of the performances but did well. Saturday night was my best night in my opinion. We also did Q&A every night after every performance. Some of it was pretty intense. Every night the audience was different, good, but in a different head space. Many of my friends showed up as well as a full house of my in-laws Saturday night. Opening night my Father and my cousin Katie were there and that was awesome.

After the show we took my wife to the White Owl Social Club for her birthday, many of us were there. She got gifts and lots of love.

I like that bar, kind of a tourist hipster place. You go there to SEE hipsters as opposed to being a hipster. It's cool, what with Portlandia being a popular show and all. Soon, Portland being a thing will end so I think enterprising people should take advantage of that now when they can.

The following Sunday we had a cast party at fancy bar Departure. That was nice.

Speaking of Sundays it's football season!! Alas, my Raiders still suck so I'm not too excited.

Not a lot of gaming this month. My RPG group is tired of Pathfinder so that's dead. I get it, though I love the system. I have no room to dick-out about it though so I just backed off and went with the flow. Savage Worlds: War of the Dead is still going strong and I'm enjoying it.

Jason wants to flex his creative muscles and home brew a fantasy world using the SW system. Looks like we'll be doing some kind of "Conan" style world. Low-magic and high adventure!!

This Saturday, the 27th, is the first Historical Wargames Day at Guardian Games. I plan to have a table set aside for some Saga. Kyle and I will be the primaries but we hope to introduce the game to others and get some of the other guys that don't play as much more into it.

My Varangians and Harald will make their debut there. I also hope to have 12 new "dark age" archers ready to go. Other than those 12 archers I have not much on my painting table.

Spencer and I's Old Glory order of the month just shipped today so we should get them early next week. I ordered a cart/wagon/peasants set that we can use for Escort Scenarios in Saga. This coming fall and winter I plan to bust out 7 points each of Pagan Rus and Rus Princes factions. This will bring me up to 4 full factions with Vikings, Normans, And the 2 Rus. A few weeks ago I also finished a William the Bastard mini to add to my Normans.

Last weekend I had off so I enjoyed some chill "me time" while Gretchen and my kid went off to Rose City Comic Con. I'm not into big cons like I thought I would be so it was just them. Saturday I did some cleaning and maintenance. I watched Lone Survivor and This is England 86 and 88. Great shows but all kind of bummers.

My kid (13 years old) was in the junior's cosplay contest and did well for almost no prep. It was her first and she learned how hard she will have to work to do well in those.

That's what has been going on. Plenty more to come too.

Very Busy Week - The Telling: Portland 2014

Very busy week ahead of me. I have a soft opening for The Telling tonight for press and such. Sept. 10-13 (Weds-Fri) I am live with my performances.

If you are interested in hearing vet's stories than here is ticket info:
Telling: Portland 2014 Tickets September 10-13, 2014
Also will be available at the box office. $15, $10 for veterans.

I'm working 8-5, my call time at the theater is 5:30, no dinner, curtain at 7:30, show done by 9:00, maybe home by 10:00. All week except Tuesday which is dress rehearsals 12-5 and I will be missing as I have to work. 15 hour days. No over-time pay. I'll be glad next Monday when all this is done.

The stories we are telling are not tales of glory or conquest. Maybe a conquest of our own selves but not of how we did it to others. This is rated R. We are not recruiting. The sharper of you readers of my blog, that also go to the show, will catch the Easter egg I drop - a bit about the relation between the title of this blog and where that came from.

Further, this production has been wrought with drama. Not a bad thing but the five of us on stage and the production and direction staff... let's just say more people have walked on us than are actually involved in the final production. Some of them for great reasons that I understand and respect. Most though? Fuck 'em. I never got to be a SEAL but I did stick it out with what is left of these guys and I'm chalking that up as something.

I try hard not to "not like" people. Not enough room in my life for hatred of others and their silly little egos. I'm human though and also have a silly little ego and, sometimes, the Viking in me over-takes the Buddhist in me. All the shit these people have done to end our show and we're still moving forward and performing this week. Whether we sell 2 tickets or 200 I don't care. I'm going through with what I promised to do and they didn't; It's  a tick against their honor, not mine. They get to live with themselves for the rest of their pretty little lives with dishonor hanging above their heads. Not me.

One thing a vet knows and may not admit, and I am far enough removed from that to see and admit it, is that 99.9% of us are not heroes. We'll soak it up when you give it to us but deep down inside we know we're mostly pieces of shit like a lot of other people. Most the guys I served with? Not your model human. Same goes with me. It's why we were there and not in college or doing something great that you end up hearing about on NPR. The military just beat "jail time" to the finish line.

All that said I'm excited to have an opportunity to stand before any willing to hear me out (and buy a ticket) and spill my guts about why I came home and was "so intense" when before I was just a big dumb jock that had some friends and a lot of hope but no direction and I liked to play Dungeons and Dragons and hang out with girls.

Did I just type 2 dichotomous actions in the same sentence? "Play Dungeons and Dragons" and "hang out with girls?". This was in the 80s.

Next week it's back to Varangian miniatures (done!), a few weekends of Saga, maybe another game of Savage Worlds, and some down-time with my wife and kid and reconnecting with my friends who I dearly miss.

Edit 9/9/14:
Soft opening is done and in the wind. Feeling much better about this. We all did well on the stage and no one fucked it up... especially me.

Added bonus is that a person we were told was in the "anti" camp actually came to the show and was impressed. So much so he invited us to perform on Veteran's Day at the big PSU auditorium. Cool. I'll think about that after this week is done. A few others did as well and gave us accolades.

After our performance we did a meet and greet. It was nice to be face to face with people, some of whom had similar experiences as us. We may do M&G or Q&A after our other performances.

Miniatures: Working on some terrain.

One thing that my new hobby of Wargaming has got me into is terrain making.

For role-playing (3.x D&D, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds) most terrain needs were fulfilled by vinyl mats and felt tip markers or, my favorite thing in the world, Flip Mats by Paizo.

I quickly discovered, after getting into All the Kings Men and Saga, that we'd need some "real" terrain pieces.

There was a learning curve there but we got it dialed in. I like a good MDF board base; I bought a sheet of the stuff from the local hardware store and had my friend, Mathew who has access to a water jet cutter, cut me some 5" and 8" round pieces.

These would become the basis (bases) of my terrain pieces. In Saga core rules you have 2 sizes of terrain - M (6" max) and L (12" max) so I thought 5" and 8" rounds would suffice. This fall I will be buying another sheet of MDF and will trade with Mathew to cut some 4"x6" and 7"x11" ovals maybe... will have to do math and find dimensions that will fully maximize the MDF sheet.

An example of how I would use a 5" terrain base. In Saga this would be a M-sized building.

This Labor Day I decided to make some new terrain pieces as it's been all Summer since I've made anything. I wanted a "stone formation" a la Stonehenge. I bought some stone outcropping pieces at the FLGS and put it all together:

I added some slate pieces like it was some kind of wall on the right side. I will be doing sand/grass mix on the outer edges for some contrast. Yes, that's five 5" bases glued together. Admittedly it's not my greatest endeavor but it will work for what I am trying to achieve - L-sized stone outcropping for Saga.

Next I worked on a tall grass/brushy area concept:

I glued down some fake fur remnants I had to make tall grass. Again, to make an oval I glued together three 5" bases. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here so I was not sure what to do about the fur-brown grass. I want it to look like tall reedy grass. I took a risk.

I took some light green spray paint and sprayed it directly down on the fur. I then took some Summer Yellow spray paint and sprayed it "up" from a low angle to high-light the fur. I think it worked. Now, I just need to flock the MDF parts with dirt and short grass and I think I've done it.