Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Year 4 - A look ahead.



The Queen's Lancers in training. One sample lancer is now painted and the rest are well on their way.

Well, three years have now passed since my heart attack and I'm still here!  I was going to look at plans for the year ahead but on the whole its steady as she goes. I feel that I've settled questions of rules, game scale and feel and so on, so this year I want to spend a little more time preparing games and designing some new scenarios. I also want to mix some different games along with the more of the same. 

I expect July to be a slow game month but starting in August I have a few things that I want to do. 

Prince Valiant. Rather than bringing out my Elastolins for a conventional game,   I want to design and play an adventure/quest skirmish game with Prince Michael and a small party travelling across the table and having random adventures possibly leading to a follow up battle game. Lots of design and prep work to be done as well as some painting of ladies, witches, centaurs and 'knights'.

Atlantica. I've been really enjoying painting up toy soldiers from the 2nd half of the 19thC, takes me back to my pre-wargaming days when I used to convert Britain's toys into models. Based on experimentation I don't think I would be happy with scaled down late 19thC big battles in 40mm. It seems to me that the optics are just wrong unless I were to adopt a more overtly abstract approach using a small number of figures in a mini-diorama on a pedestal base with label and a set of rules designed to treat the base as a playing piece and that's not where I want this collection to go. Perhaps another project sometime in the future. Instead, I'll continue to work towards smaller encounters with a Colonial flavour and a back story. Lots of Red coats and Native Atlanticans  to be sculpted and cast and scenery to be made. It'll take a while but I'm looking forward to it. 

40mm Oberhilse troops trying Seminary Ridge on for size. I was able to fit almost the same number of figures on the same frontage but it just didn't feel like a big battle. At first I blamed it on the depth of the units but I think it has more to do with the optics of the height of the figures  and terrain compared to how far away/close the enemy is. I tried fewer larger units and just fewer figures over all but the lack of manoeuvre room and the look didn't encourage me to continue.

Other games?  Expect a 16thC game, more 1/72nd ACW, and some of whatever takes my fancy.























16 comments:

  1. A very solid achievement - well done!

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    1. Well my father went on 40 years after his first attack so I have a ways to go yet and time to get there but thank you.

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  2. Ross, congrats on the anniversary and may there be many more.

    And I like the look of those lancers !

    Regards,
    Steve

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  3. A very hearty "Happy Anniversary" to you, Ross. May you have many many more . . . with Toy Soldiers galore!


    -- Jeff

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  4. Ross, another fine posting and congratulations on the three-year anniversary. I had a similar episode one year ago in June. Hope you have recovered fully.

    One question I have been meaning to ask: how do you find the time to post with such frequency and of such interesting topics and battle reports?

    As a side note, your "MacDuff to the Frontier" was one of the first colonial rulesets I tried for NWF probably more than 15 years ago.

    Very enjoyable reading!

    Take care,
    Jon

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    1. Thanks Jon, I have a great fondness for MacDuff, "he" introduced me to many friends and thus encouraged me greatly to do things like blog. Being retired rather early has given me more time for hobbies but I've also found that I don't enjoy painting as much as I used to, even with special glasses my eyes are as fuzzy as my hands and I get cricks in my back, cramps in my fingers and on and on so and a certain degree of deja vu so blogging takes up some of what used to be painting time.

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  5. Those lancers look superb - and that's before the paint. Good health, old chap!

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    1. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys on the table.

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  6. Ross Mac,

    Congratulations ... and I hope that you have many more anniversaries!

    Your plans sound very interesting, and I look forward to following their development.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  7. Glad to have you with us Ross. Keep gaming and posting about it. Keeps me inspired.

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  8. I love the custom lancer in the classic "Britains" pose. Some day I would love to try to customize some of my Zinnbrigade casting the way you do. Stay healthy. John

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  9. Your strength is as the strength of ten, because your heart is pure.

    Take care of yourself, Ross - we all need you.

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  10. Aww thanks, but why am I suddenly remembering an old adage that you might not live longer if you live a pure life but it will seem like it.

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