Un-Intended Hiatus

Hello, I’m Back!

I did not mean to take a 6 month long hiatus but I did. No real reason, blogging is not a hard thing for me to do, but I ended up taking kind of a break there. I did stay busy first half of 2016 though.

In a nutshell, first half of 2016:

1) After hosting the Saga tournament in Portland last fall I was asked to take over the one at Enfilade this year; which I did. It was good, I learned some things.

2) I sourced from Old Glory and began painting my English Civil War Scots Covenanter army.

Old Glory Miniatures 25mm Lowland Pikes ECW-40 and Lowland Muskets ECW-41 (pikes are seperate add weapons PSJ-01)

3) Not getting a lot of Bolt Action in after painting them Finns. Oh well, what is a historical war gamer if not a person that has minis on the shelf not doing much?!

4) FINALLY played Scots in Saga. I started painting them last year but never finished. Still need to paint most of them but I had fun playing them and am looking forward to more games with them.

Old Glory Miniatures 9th Century Scots with Spears and Command SVS-06

Other than that my life has been busy and grand with the ups and downs of a working man and his family.

In non-gaming news I’ve been working on my Viking shield for my VNA group. Next project is to finish my wife’s Viking knife – a basic job. I bought a filet blade and will mount a birch handle to it and make a simple leather sheath. In 2 weekends we are having a “Viking Picnic” where everyone brings a quasi-documentable summer time food to share. I’m doing rye-flour flat breed.

Old plywood SCA shield, removed all furniture and covered in thin canvas, painted with acrylic paint, applying rawhide rim.

I got a PS4 for Xmas (I bought one for the family). I got myself Fallout 4 …. That was a mistake! What a time-suck!! It’s an incredible game though. I’ve a few other games but that’s my go-to. My wife is a Mortal Kombat X gal.

I went to the ER end of April for a minor thing that turned major. All cleared up though and all is well … except the bill…

Been going to a lot more metal shows this year. I usually try to mix it up with other kinds of music I like but metal is where I feel the most enjoyment. I’ve had some really good times at these shows and have been since Hoverfest II last summer. Speaking of shows, I just went to go see John Carpenter this week, he played music from his movies. That was awesome as I am a fan of his and The Thing is not only my favorite horror and sci-fi movie but one of my favorite movies of all time.

My metal vest... or "kutte" as some like to call it.

Not following a lot of TV shows lately. I’m still on The Walking Dead train but I fear I don’t like Fear the Walking Dead much (I want to, really). The latest Season of Fear ended much the same as all zombie-media ends, our survivors walking away from some burning failure. Boring. I do like Preacher though.

I’ve really gained an interest in reading Historical Fiction, though my tastes are for certain eras. The main era is, obviously, Viking or Dark Ages. I’ve read through all of Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles as well as James Nelson’s Norsemen Saga (Fin Gall being the first book). Just recently I finished Culley’s The Bastard’s Crown, a novel about Norman knights in the conquest of England.

As far as other medias go, particularly social media and focused on Facebook, I’m kind of done. I’ve never been good at pin-pointing specifics in a timely matter but right now is a bad time for social media. It brings something out in people that does not come out in face to face interactions. The concept is positive but how it’s playing out in real life is poor.

Remember when we all thought ESP would be a cool power to have? Reading people’s minds? Well, we got it now and it’s social media. Now all I can say is that people I respect make themselves look like idiots – A LOT OF THE TIME. I’m not a genius myself, actually I’m average at best when it comes to IQ. I’ve also partook of looking like and idiot on social media. I’m just now recognizing it’s true value or maybe more like how it lacks any value.

One thing I have learned using social media is that I am an “opposing-view-guy”. I tend to find the meta-fault in an opinion. I’ve learned to not state it as, regardless of my intention, it is seen as an attack on a person’s intelligence and values 100% of the time.

For example, a few years ago I, literally, copied and pasted a written law on a subject regarding an issue. This was the following interaction:
“That’s just your opinion Gabe.”
“No, that’s actually the law that is in the books regarding this subject.”
“Opinions are like ass holes Gabe.”
“Again, it’s the law, not my opinion.”
“You’re part of the problem. You don’t listen or compromise.”
“I’m all ears, I posted the law so that we could discuss from a knowledgeable vantage point.”

“Again, you are not listening.”
“Never mind…”

This was from a person who has a Masters, accolades, and is in academia. I was unfriended soon after this exchange (later found out that a few unfriended me over that exchange), no problem to me as I gave up around then.

As the plumber says, “Well there’s your problem!”

Today with all the reported shootings, wars, presidential cycle, and injustices in the legal system all I’m seeing on Face Book is declarations of allegiance to some cause, threat of unfriending if one does not follow some codified terms of social actions 100%, accusations of whether you are an “ally” or not, and a lot of look how stupid they are posts. I miss the halcyon days of food pics and Most Interesting Man Memes!!

God Bless you World's Most Interesting Man - and nice Clutch reference!

All that said, I declare I am slowly moving away from social media. It’s making me not like people and I don’t want to do that.  I’m still going to use it for hobbies and interest; I recently found the tab that fills my FB feed with just the pages of the groups I like, but seeing the feeds of my “friends”? BLECHH!!

Anyways, I’ll keep blogging as I have 2-3 followers!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great New Year's Eve too!! Let's bring in 2016!!!

I hope whatever traditions you follow this winter are not disturbed and make you happy. I hope you get to do what you want to do and everything is good. If it's not may it be corrected by your own hand.

My current tradition is a movie Xmas Eve (tonight it's Star Wars… yeah that one). We'll go to the local place down the street from us, The Roseway. Dinner will get fit into there someplace, something simple. Then we'll go to bed to get some rest for the big day.

Xmas Day, though changed up a bit this year due to the family patriarch moving to Tacoma for work, is a busy day. It will start with an early rise and gifts at our home. Gretchen will make some breakfast and I will get a fire started in the fireplace. We'll feed the cats and open their stocking (cat nip and cat toys). This year, for our little trio, we got one big gift, a Playstation 4. This is the big family gift. Normally it's Jewelry for the Wife and clothes for the Kid. This year it's a PS4.

This year, due to my Brother In Law moving to Tacoma and other factors, the adults of the family drew names. This, frankly, allowed me to buy a PS4, a good one, as I am not made of money.

We will all gather at my Mother in Law's place at noon and do the big gift exchange and dinner there.  Dinner will be a roast, beef loin (NY Strip roast) I presume. I have offered to help pay for that. The name I drew was my Brother in Law and I got him a bunch of Thundercats stuff as he collects those things. I ordered a belt buckle, wall clock, and foam sword. The wall clock has not been delivered yet and it has been 2 weeks. The seller has been notified and my BiL will have to live with 2/3rds of his Xmas present for now.

For dinner it will be a prime rib roast and I'm planning on bringing some whiskey to share. By evening, hopefully, the cool games I want will have loaded onto the PS4 (Battlefront and World Of Tanks beta) and we will be home full of red meat and whiskey and I can play a game until the wee-hours (which is 10 pm now).

When I was young my Xmas was a bit different. My Mother was Thai and my Father decidedly anti-Xmas. I looked forward to New Year's Eve when we'd go to the restaurant and celebrate like good Asians do – gambling, kids serving grown-ups who were drunk and full of gambling money, some gifts, and a ton of Thai food. That was my Xmas… New Year's Eve. I'd always come out of NYE with a pocket of cash ($40-$60 - big money for the 80s) and a few gifts. I learned to play poker and blackjack this way too.

Today NYE is a bit calmer if not more austere. My Wife works at Starbucks and tends to work New Year's Day, like around 6:00 AM. The buses don't run well in Portland that early (all that "Portland Mass Transit is awesome" talk? Not true for years) so I give her a ride in. Normally I'd go to Percy's for Orchish Sabbath for the day – that's where the smoking, drinking, and gambling take place – this year I might stay in though. We will be doing our annual NYE Dinner at NoHo's. It's a local Hawaiian place that has been around for a while. The one on Fremont has an annual luau and an all you can eat dinner buffet.

The past 3 years I have taken time off on Xmas-NYE week, about a week and a half. I took Thanksgiving week off this year and the following week (2 week vacation) so I did not take off my usual. I also have caught a cold the last  3 years right on New Year's Day. This year I caught it a week early! Maybe I'll not be sick this New Year's.

In the wargaming arena things kind of slowed down post Saga Tournament in October for me. Not any kind of "lack of wanting to play" from me, far from that. My urge to play is stronger than ever. I just had a lot of stuff bump into that.

My aforementioned Brother in Law moving was one. I had some stuff in his basement in storage. He had to move and put his house up so my stuff had to go. My den looked like an episode of Hoarders

for a month. I had all my stuff in there and was going through it. Found some cool stuff and also threw a lot of stuff in the dumpster. Goodwill made out like a bandit too. This lead to my "Man-Corner" becoming a staging area and organization work bench for that month-long project.

Then there was 2 weeks of Thanksgiving vacation. A week in Orlando at Disney World and Thanksgiving and a week at home – that last week was spent cleaning and reorganizing my Man-Corner.

JUST got back into painting about 2 weeks ago. In the time off I had to reassess my time and whether I had things I need to do over things I want to do.

My Saga Scots were put aside over finishing my Lion Rampant Agincourt English retinue. Those English are first (and I'm down to my last unit of billmen).

I have not been very busy with Bolt Action play so my Finns got put aside. I can finish those in a week though; Just got some tank details and one last infantry squad to do there really.

I want to get started on my "Dark Ages Commons" line. Basically, I want to sell bondi/militia level Vikings and Saxons. Tunics, pants, spear, shields, maybe some axes and a helmet or 3. Speed-painted of course so no show pieces.  I think there is a niche to fill there for some pre-paints. Having painted that kind of stuff for the past few years I know I'd sure as heck buy some if they were available. Painting common spearmen is just boring and seems to be one of the stumbling blocks. I do not plan to take commissions as I want this to be off the shelf.

x12 Viking Spearmen (Bondi) for $60 sounds reasonable. No bases, buyer base on their own as to fit needs. Speed painted, "dipped" in Army Painter Quickshade, matte varnish. I'll have some out at Enfilade's Bring and Buy. Who knows I might even expand beyond the beaches of England and out of the Dark Ages.

Speaking of Scots I've just started a unit of Scots Lancers from Warlord Games for some English Civil War action! I've sourced my muskets and pikes and command already so those are a go. I just ordered some field guns, all I need is crew. After that I am fully painting Scots Covenanters for ECW via Pike and Shotte rule-set. Also getting ready for the Lion Rampant version for ECW skirmishing.

Romans! Who don't need Romans? I sourced (via Old Glory of course) 60 Caesar's Gallic Wars Legionnaires. The big plan is to have a good host of Romans ready for some big battle next fall in Salem. Or maybe not. I just think that having an army of Romans in 28mm sitting around is a good idea. It's like a requirement for your Grognard card 'aint it? Plus, since I decided on Romans it seems everyone else I play with is putting up barbarian hordes to go against them – big meanies!

Did you see Dragon Rampant is out? Cool. I got a gift card to my FLGS and am itching to spend it on Dragon Rampant if they have it. This means all my fantasy figures are now viable for some games.

Welp... I'll be getting back into the sing of things post Holidays here. Much to paint and my lead mountain has grown. Happy New Year's and thanks for reading y'all.

-Gabe

On my bench - post Rose City Saga Tournament, a break, and finishing what I started

I'll post a blog about it later but I hosted a Saga Tournament last weekend and it went very well. I enjoyed hosting it and hope all the players enjoyed playing.

Post tournament I took a break last week. Worked on nothing at my bench.

Today, Sunday, I went back to finish some things I started as I've some HYW English and ECW Scots coming down the pipe that I would like to get gong by end of year. What I have now are:

I point (x8) of Scots Warriors for Saga. I've already a point of Warriors and a point of Levy finished and 3 points of Hearthguard and a Warlord based and primed. I just drilled (add weapon) and based these last 8 figures and I will be off to the races! Old Glory 9th Century Scots with Spears and Command pack.

Bases are Last Stand Convertibles, OG minis glued on, Liquitex texture gel applied. Next step is to glue in spears and then prime them in some Army Painter brown or black base spray.

I'm finally finishing up these 4 figures, Bronze Age Female Vikings. I got them early this year and have not been in a rush to get them done. I am now though and I plan to throw them into the mix of my Viking Faction for Saga.

Also, a new procedure for me, I've been painting up shields en masse. I hate painting up a group of minis and getting close to finished just to realize I never did any shields. What? You've never done that? I do it all the time!

Anyways, I decided to paint up a dozen shields and just keep them on the shelf. I'll do another dozen next weekend. I find it a good place for left-over paint on your pallet when painting minis.

Dinner time! Then it's Walking Dead Night on AMC. I might even make some popcorn!

See you all next week maybe.

Sooner than Later

So, here's more pictures of current projects and a game last night.

"Cometh At Me Broeth!"... or how ever them Normans did all that talking.

Old Glory Norman Mounted Command pack. I painted it kind of simple, how I like my Normans and how they seem to be depicted anyways, and glued his kite shield to his back. On a 25mm x 50mm plastic base. I will be using him in Saga (Hearthguard or Hero), Lion Rampant, and Hail Caesar.

Also painted up:

Same pack as above. I added the banner (it came with the pack) and kite shield on his left arm holding the mace. Can be used in Saga as a Banner or Religious Advisor (both needed in Norman Warbands IMO).

Here's the finished figs that are those Norman Crossbowmen (Reaper Anhurian Crossbowmen and Ral Partha Dwarf Crossbowman). I think they came out pretty OK for a speed-paint.

A project with no real purpose other than "cleaning up the lead mountain" are these last 3 figures from my Old Glory Rus Command pack I bought over a year ago. I REALLY like these figures and hope to use them in things other than Saga and the Pagan Rus faction - which I kind of don't like to play ... sadness...

I plan to put these 3 together in some kind of vignette/command model.

And the final product for my Scots Levy (Old Glory Irish Kerns). I used random shields to give them a peasant levy look.

Edit: Forgot about the games I played last night. Went to Spencer's and got 2 games in - My Vikings vs. his Anglo-Danes... just like the olden days!

First game was Clash of the Warlords and pesky ANglo-Danes won it in a open field game.

Second was Clash but we mixed it up with a shallow river (rough terrain) and single bridge in the middle. Vikings one that one with a bit of subterfuge... as much as one can get away with in Saga.

Lured the Anglo-Danes onto the bridge by baiting with an easy to kill Levy and wiped out the Anglo-Dane huscarls. Above you see all Anglo-Danes on the bridge, Viking hirdmen and bondi in foreground, sneakier bondi in the background as they crossed the river with precision timing. Sven Svensson the Viking chief and his bard in lower left corner.

The Viking bondi running across the river worked! Pulled Anglo-Dane forces off the bridge. Vikings then crossed and closed in. Harold Godwinson of the Anglo-Danes and his brother finishing off my bondi.

Looking grim but much closer than this picture makes it out to be.

On My Bench

Wow, I've really started slacking on the blogging!

Some reasons why, none of them major or dramatic:
Laziness.

What once was content for me is not now.

Some technical issues.
Reading other's blogs and thinking "Why should I blog it if they are already doing it and better?"

I'm on Facebook. I do this thing I call "speed updates" on my wall where I boil down 8 things into a sentence each and blurt it out – like:

Raiders yeah!
My garden has failed basil but the beets are going strong.
My kid is a high school Freshman!
Happy birthday to my cat.
Loving the show The Last Ship!

I will follow that format here but with pictures and focused on gaming!

On my workbench now:

Old Glory Irish Kerns WOR-19   Not painted as Kerns. I split a pack of these guys with Spencer earlier this year. They will form the beginnings of my Saga Scots Faction playing the part of my Scotts Levy. Spears are Old Glory Short Thrusting Spears. I hate putting them together and drilling out the minis to fit them but when I am done that hate turns into a satisfaction. The extra headache and work really pays off.

Though built to be Scots Levy for Saga I will also use them, if needed, whenever I need "cannon fodder" type troops for Lion Rampant.

They were painted in my usual technique of speed painting:
Glue to base

Base layer of Army Painter leather brown primer (from rattle can)

Skin

Tunics

spears

Hair

Quickshade with Army Painter strong tone

Matte

Glue on shields (painted the same way but separately)

Flock bases with some of that green stuff and watered PVA glue

The picture posted was pre quickshade phase. These are all done now.

Reaper Anhurian Crossbowmen. I have 8 of these painted up a few years ago (as per my blog here) and have used them well in my Norman Faction for Saga. They are Reaper so "Heroic" in scale and 32mm vs. the 28mm figures from others. They do look huge. No one has complained and I am fine with that.

I wanted 12 crossbowmen for Lion Rampant though. I had 3 more Anhurian Crossbowmen in my fantasy figure lead mountain (what happened to that 12th I have no idea). I needed one more crossbowman and found some older Ral Partha dwarven crossbowmen I have had laying around for over a decade. One of them is now painted up and will be a very short Norman!

Maybe someday I'll get some actual Norman Crossbowmen from Old Glory but that is real low on my list right now.

I saw Mad Max: Fury Road last May. It was awesome. Everything I dreamed it would be. I then remembered I had the reaper "Mad Max" mini… I forget it's product name … unpainted in that same lead mountain. I also had picked up a female modern hero type (this one is a rendering of Matrix-like character) last year in need of more heroic female minis with guns. Further, the guy in the long coat was a mini that my wife found in the vacuum cleaner last month! He's one I put together from Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors: The Men series.

Needing to whittle down that lead mountain some I decided to paint them too.

These were all done over Labor Day Weekend. Mostly on Labor Day.

Also spending time on lots of terrain and getting ready for the Saga Tournament I am hosting at Guardian Games, 12 noon, Saturday, October 3rd, 2015. I will, totally, Blog about that.

Terrain piece - marsh... the beginnings of

Also from Old Glory, this, my favorite mini of all time (almost), a mounted Norman I call "Get Some Bro!"

It's all painted now and I will share that one with you on my next post.

Take care, have fun, be safe!

Saga Tips For Noobs IV: 12 Hearthguard

The Deathstar, Fire Blossom… some of the names I've seen for the 12 figure Hearthguard unit. For this I will call it x12 HG.

"Hearthguard" denotes, historically, your professional warriors. Bodyguard, the chief's friends, Ring Wearers, Wyclef's men in the movie The Thirteenth Warrior. These guys usually formed the core of a Dark Ages fighting group. They would have fine spears and axes made for war. Decorated helms, shields, and byrnies for armor. Saxes made for fighting in the shield wall and maybe even swords. They were trained and experienced as fighting was their job. Gold, silver, and bronze rings adorned their arms denoting prestige and accomplishments.

NOTE:

I talk a lot about winning and losing and some may construe this as a focus of mine when I game. It is not. I game for many reasons, the same as anyone else. I do like competition and feel winning and losing is part of that tally. As an ex high school jock one thing I learned is that even if you lose a lot you need to improve. Recognizing your weaknesses and improving them is part of that process and I do this when I game. I like to be able to put up a good game, win or lose, a the least. I like to overcome my own obstacles as well as those of my gaming mates.

Over the last few years I've played a bit of Saga. I've lost most of my games. Earlier this year I kind of turned a corner and started winning a bit more and the biggest change I made was mustering a x12 HG unit.

My first experience was running Harald Hardrada and x12 Varangians. That cost an extra point for Harald though. Still viable (and I've seen it called The Panzer) but effective as you can give them armor 6 or give them two-handed axes and armor 5. I would never run that one "right" though and my Varangian Panzer Tank was always out of position. My last game with them against Welsh though shined a light on how effective they COULD be if at full strength and in the thick of battle*.

* I had 7 Varangians left by the time I got them into the grill of the Welsh and those 7 did some serious damage.

Then there was my Vikings vs. The Welsh in a game of Escort where my opponent put down a x12 HG of mounted figures and swept my Vikings up good.

Later, quite by accident, I set up my Pagan Rus Faction with a x12 HG (meaning to set up a x12 Warrior unit) and did not know I did it until after dice were rolled. I went with it and that unit did real well though I lost a Saga Dice.

This sheds light on why I was NOT running x12 HGs – Saga Dice. One of the things running through my mind all the time was maximization of Saga Dice. I was also getting killed in most of my games. Relation? Who knows? I'd always try to get more Saga Dice slots by mustering small but many units thinking, "I'm going to lose units thus Saga Dice – I better bolster that up so losing units doesn't take away from rolling 6 dice per turn."

Well, that did not seem ot be a problem when I did run x12 HGs so I started running my Vikings with that. Here is my typical list –

Vikings 6 Points:

Warlord

Hearthguard>

Hearthguard> x12 HG

Hearthguard>

Warrior

Warrior split in to 2x4 units

-Gives me 6 Saga Dice

I've been adding a bard lately. Gives me a Saga Dice and some other abilities. This is still new to me though.

Depending on scenario and terrain my usual deployment is a x12 HG as core, screens forward of Warriors x4 and backed by the Warrior x8. Warlord leading the x12 HG either from front or rear depending on scenario.

My focus with this unit is to get into the ranks of my opponent and tear them up, regardless of scenario. My signature Viking Board ability to bolster them in a fight is Ullr – re-roll misses. Been pretty effective so far.

Pretty much the same with my Pagan Rus (bolstered by Standing Like Bears) and will be soon for my Normans… my beleaguered and hard-working but fragile Normans.

Here is a list of pros and cons. I hope that this list will highlight why it works:

Pros –

Activates on all Saga Dice.

Hits Hard (24 attack dice).

Highest, unmodified, armor.

Longevity and resilience.

Most Saga Abilities are usable by them.

Cons –

3 points to muster.

1 Saga Dice.

Harder to paint (they need to look good in my book!)

Easy to shut down if you don't care for them.

That last point is the kicker. Welsh can call them out and move them when you don't want them too if they are too close. Anglo-Danes can hit them with one of their fatigue bombs if you don't screen them and shut them down for a turn or 3. Pagan Rus will exhaust them and then you'll lose figures if you have them M or more from another unit. Vikings can just hit hard with either a x12 HG or 'Serkers and throw 36 Attack Dice at you. << these have happened or I did it. I'm sure other factions have nasty little tricks also. All of them can be mitigated though if you watch and plan for them. KNOW THE OTHER FACTIONS!!

Actual tactics, strategy being too strong a word in this case, used would depend slightly on scenario but is pretty straight forward:

Using Saga Abilities and smaller unit screens (levies and small warrior units) you move your x12 HG into a targeted area and start rolling dice.

In Clash of the Warlords this leads to killing figures and hopefully the opponent's Warlord.

In Fords this leads to a weak defensive and crossing force for your opponent and you crossing the bridge with a tough to route force of high-scoring Hearthguards.

Escort - cripple the defense and the Baggage has no chance.

Sacred Ground - if you don't have a lot of minis, because that dang x12 HG killed them all, you won't score a lot of points.

You get the point?

The 12 Figure Hearthguard unit - it's what I suggest to all new players.

Bolt Action - forward progression with my Finns

 I challenged my buddy (that taught me Bolt Action) to a game at Historical Wargames Day at Guardian on the 27th of June. 500 points of Finns vs. his Soviets. Not sure if we'll play a 500 point skirmish or a scenario from Ostfront that is 1000 Soviets vs. 500 Finns. Whatever it is here is what I have "finished" up to today:

(see what I typed? "Finished" haha!)

 The Command:

2nd Lt Niva and his NCO

Rifle Squad:

1st Squad

Weapons Support:

Add caption

MMG Team

"Nelli" the anti tank gun

Some of those infamous Finnish Snipers

Coming down the pipe are another rifle squad, a recon squad, and if I've time a anti tank rifle team.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend coming up.

.