Death of a Hero and other ways to fritter a weekend

Spinner says Grendel killed the Hero.

Spinner is our Whippet who has filled in as "big dog" for most of the decade since our last Wolfhound. The Hero in question was not a Geat but rather an HTC smart phone.  The tooth prints on the casing definitely indicate someone munched it, much the same as various remotes etc that have, on rare occasions, been  accidentally left over night on a coffee table in the family room. Spinner claims that a fog comes over the room, he falls into a deep sleep and when he wakes, well there it is, must have been Grendel.

Now to be fair, the phone isn't really dead, there's only one button not working, the "go back where you were" button and, anyway, the more than 2 years old phone has been having increasingly frustrating issues already. Not to mention  that the USB cord used for charging and uploading pictures is looking a little worn and may have shorted out the other day (I've been planning to replace it for a while...) which may explain the 3 goblins dancing across the phone when I tried to turn it on yesterday. They're gone now, mostly, but the "Not so smart phone", as I have come to call it, has now been relegated to e-reader and I spent a fair amount of time on Saturday downgrading my cellular plan and re-activating a nearly new Razr that was my wife's phone for several years. Luckily for me now, she hated it, rarely used it and replaced it as soon as possible. I loved mine and hers has the battery bought just before my well worn phone was retired to make way for a Hero.

Amazing how much time that all takes. In the end, I once again have a phone that actually works as a phone but will have to make do again without internet access everywhere I go.

Gratuitous shot of largely RAFM 25mm figures along with Corvus, Benassi, Minifig and Garrison.

However, I still found time to work on my Ancient rules (See Gathering Blog).  The main focus yesterday was command control and after exploring various carrot and stick options, the final decision was that the Initiative roll is all the Friction that I really need. Units (and commanders) can get caught short when there is a flip in sequence. Units don't arrive in time where they are being sent, allowing the enemy to exploit an opening or to pug a gap, other units might be caught in flank or not deployed properly and so on. Actually, the Order check can work against this providing a form of Double Jeopardy which has been a  bug bear for me for the last year or so.  Expect a ripple over Hoft sooner or later as Brigadiers perhaps go back to just allowing  coordinated groups of units as well as rallying and leading in combat.

I also found time to base up some super cheap HO trees (as in 16 for a $ + $5 shipping) from ebay. Shame, shame, shame on me. I am philosophically opposed to buying cheap plastic trees from China, probably made from radio active plastic by someone working 70 hour weeks for next to nothing. It was a moment of weakness and frustration. The trees are about what you would expect. It said Pine trees, they look more like some sort of Aspen or Poplar and are smaller than I would have liked, but a drive along our road showed me several very similar trees of both small and medium height so they've been based and added to my ACW collection. (Now to produce those 6 feet of wooden fences.)

Last but not least, I started work on making a mold of my forthcoming Scruby compatible 1812 British Officer. I had to stop though when his head came off. (I confess, its not my head, its a Scruby one so that he matches his men.) But I'll get that fixed and get back to him this week. His US counter part is slow to come out of an awkward growing stage but hopefully he'll be also be ready to take the plunge before long.