Looking at the Simpler Side of Things

Lately, I've been finding myself looking at rules where quick playability outweighs realism. Rules that I might have poo-pooed a few years ago greatly appeal to me. I think the main reason being that I have almost zero time to even exhale lately, let alone devote to hobby activities. There is a part of my brain that is constantly screaming, "I want to have a game!!!" but it is squelched by the powerful "must do's." There is a scene in Cinderella (the Disney cartoon) where the evil step-mother tells Cinderella that go to the ball but only if she does about 10 new chores, in addition to her regular chores. That is how I feel most of the time. What I am hoping for this new year is to be able to set up a game quickly and play it in a relatively short amount of time. Here are some rules that I am looking at:

Air Strike: Modern Air Combat for the Whole Family by T. Jensen
Boy, talk about your simple rules! Someone recommended them on the aerial wargames group on FaceBook. These are at the same level as the Battle of Britain rules that Just Jack has modified for his tiny air battles, only Air Strike is card based. I read them over and I really liked what I saw. The aircraft are very generic. A fighter is a fighter, and a missile is a missile. No variation in performance. When you think about it,  unless your match up is a jet from the 70s versus a jet from today, there isn't going to be huge differences; and to paraphrase Chuck Yeager, its the pilot not the plane that will determine the outcome of the dogfight. For a good review, see the Red in the Morning blog. You can get them on Wargames Vault for $4.50

Archduke Piccolo's Ultra Simple Naval Rules by Archduke Piccolo
As I mentioned in my previous post, my interest in WWII naval gaming has resurfaced. In particular, I've wanted to replay the various battles found in Hector Bywater's Great Pacific War. I've been looking at various rules including, Bob Cordery's Gridded Naval War-games, David Manley's Find, Fix and Strike, and recently Battleship Captain by Gary Graber. The Achduke's rules are fairly simple, and based on his after action reports, they are pretty fast games. I tend to give a big thumbs up to any game, simple or complex, if I can understand them after only one reading. These rules fit that criterion. They are only for battleships, however, and hex based. I do have a hex mat that I bought several years ago that has a seascape on one side. He provides the stats for a great number of battleships, but explains in detail how he derived them if there is a ship you want that is not on his list.

Last Post of the Old Year

2019 didn't end very well. The gastro-intestinal issue that hit me hard back in August in China made a comeback. Once again, I was in a Chicago hospital from the 23rd to the 25th, and then recovering. Finally, they figured out what is going on. It turns out that even though I no longer have a gall bladder, I managed to made me a gall stone that clogged up the bile duct going from the liver to the small intestine. Because I am on. blood thinner, they couldn't remove it, but they did put in a stint to widen the duct and allow some of the bile to flow out. When I get back to Bristol, I will contact a GI and get the stone and the stint removed.

Reflection
While recovering, I did go through my blog and reread my 2019 posts. I actually did do more than I had time to post. Here's a reflection of what I did.

1. As I said a number of times, I've spent a lot more time than I wanted to working on my 15mm fantasy project involving rival barbarian armies.

2. I got in a micro armor battle and tested a game. I had hoped to have some more games to test other rules but that never happened.

3. I got everything ready for my latest campaign involving 1/600 micro armor and air combat. What's bogged me down with that is terrain, but I think I've made enough for a game.

4. I had an itch to game American War of Independence using Black Powder, which I bought a couple of years ago. That itch seems to have gone away.

Plans
I don't like to make resolutions, but here is some thoughts.

1. Game more.

2. Try really hard to avoid going down the rabbit hole of detailed painting and terrain building, and just get down to playing some games. It reminds me a lot of my grad school days. Students "waste" a lot of time trying to complete the perfect research dissertation. As a result, many run out of their funding before they finish.

4. I've had a terrible itch to get back into WWII naval wargaming. I am exploring rules that are quick and dirty.

5. Still trying to figure out that whole campaign dilemma. Will continue to figure out how to have a plausible campaign, but like everything else, I am not going dwell on it at the expense of gaming,

6. I noticed that I might have been working on some stuff just to put on Facebook. Not sure what this means, but I not sure I like it.

Well, that is about it. I hope those of you who are readers have a happy New Years and may 2020 be good to you and your loved ones.

What I Did on My Fall Break

No game-related activities while on my fall break. For three days my daughter and I repainted my son's bedroom. The prep time, plus running around to various DYI stores probably took two of the three days. The Soldier Room, as my kids call it, is so full of my son's stuff that there was no way I could get to my work bench even if I had time.

Not Quite Back into the Swing of Things

Life has really kept me away physically from gaming activities, but the old brain manages to keep working on things. I have put away the 15mm fantasy stuff for the time being to re-focus on other things. I've been pretty much living vicariously through other's blogs. Several bogs in particular have gotten the old juices flowing.

Archduke Piccolo
He's been posting a number of  ImagiNation-related posts, several of which involve WWII naval battles using some pretty simple rules. Maybe its time to dust off my old scratch-built 1/2400 ships and have some games. His most recent post (September 25th) has a planned campaign involving a modern revolution. What further caught my eye was that he mentioned Gow & Plastique's Little Cold War Rules. Will he use them? It would be neat to see them in action.

Solipsist Gaming
Pahoota has not posted much lately, but I certainly don't hold that against him. In 2013, he had a series of posts on set of simple jet combat rules called Our Space Age Airforce. In my search to fit a set of simple, quick and dirty jet fighter rules, I have been looking at his rules recently. The only thing is that there are very few stats for the various jets. Pahoota, if you are reading this, I'd like to get in touch with you concerning aircraft stats for your rules, or at least how you figured them out.

Cuba Libre! An Alt History Wargaming Blog
I've been following Just Jacks's blog for awhile. He has great AARs. Recently, he's been conducting air battles related to his ground campaign using some a modification of some fairly simple Battle of Britain rules. This is another set of potential playable rules to consider for jet combat.

If I can squeeze in them time, I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

Chocobos Finished

I finally finished them. They were a somewhat rushed job, but I'm pretty happy with the way they came out. I painted the base colors and then gave them a wash of black diluted with Future acrylic floor wax. Then sprayed with a clear, flat paint. My biggest decision was how to base them. Ideally, I wanted them mounted two to a base, but it didn't look practical. So, I just left them on the washers that I used to paint them.

This more-or-less ends my work on fantasy figures for awhile. As I mention in several previous posts, I'm getting burned out on them. I hadn't planned to be painting as many figures as I did for my planned War Between the Barbarians. This is the first time you're hearing of this? I've sort of mentioned it in previous posts. Basically, I have a big box of ancient Britons/Celts that were painted up as proxies for fantasy barbarians. Since then, I've been building up fantasy barbarian units with Demonworld and Copplestone figures.  I've been thinking about selling the Celts, but before I do, I wanted to have a battle using them. 

In my old D&D world, which is the background setting for all fantasy battles I have, there are these barbarians called the Bruins that live in the northern wastes. The southern tribes have become more "civilized" by settling down, and some tribes have even set up kingdoms. The northern tribes have maintained their barbaric identities and still pride themselves for raiding soft. civilized peoples. A brutal but charismatic chieftain named Wojhan has united the northern tribes and wants to "liberate" the southern tribes from their civilized ways. He has recruited allies including Gnolls and Beastmen. The campaign is a sort of a prequel to the current setting of my D&D world. During this time, the southern Brunnic kingdoms are not yet completely independent and still maintain some loyalty to a high king. Eventually I will have at least one battle, but I'm not sure when.

Chocobos Work in Progress

I have been occupied with battling my health insurance company to pay for a least some of my hospital visit of three weeks ago. They seem to think dehydration, jaundice, and a heart arrhythmia are no big deal. Probably because of this, I've not been sleeping well lately. If I can't sleep, I might as well do something. That something is chocobo.

I was never a Final Fantasy fan, but it the idea of warriors riding large birds was sort of cool.

Source: www.creativeuncut.com

Then, there is Taarna the warrior riding on her bird-pterosaur-creature from the movie Heavy Metal:

So, I decided to make my own chocobos, but it took me a long time to start this project. I'm not breaking any new ground here. A gamer has his own avian army, which gave me some inspiration.

This is what I've done so far:

I used Splintered Light Miniatures' terror birds for the steeds. The riders are Essex Miniatures Tartar light bowmen. I had to pull apart the legs as much as I could, carve away some of the bird's body, and then use polymer clay for a saddle to get the bowmen to sit somewhat naturally on the bird. The bird's tack was made with glue-soaked paper. I should have made the reins thinner and they look pretty stiff, but I am not sure how else to make them. Knowing some about bird anatomy, I decided against having a bit in the mouth. Having a metal bit would probably break or damage the beak.

The next step is to paint them and then decide how I want to base them. I normally base my fantasy armies using the old WRG Ancients basing scheme, but the birds are pretty big and they don't really fit the 40mm x 30mm bases that are used for cavalry.

A Brief Update on Life

I went to China for the last two weeks in July. It was not a trip to remember. Worst part is that I ended up in the emergency room for two days almost as soon as I touched down in Chicago.

A perfect storm of overly oily food, food poisoning, extreme heat and humidity, and having to drink far more alcohol than I wanted or normally do (nothing like endearing macho drinking customs), led to jaundice and a heart arrhythmia due to dehydration. The arrhythmia seems to be under control thanks to IV bags of water + potassium, the liver thing might be a larger problem. They ruled out hepatitis, and the liver enzymes were back to normal by the time I left the hospital, but I go for follow ups with my doctor tomorrow. I'm hoping that it was due to my lack of a gall bladder, but we will see. Frankly, I am a little nervous.

Since I have come back to Tennessee, I have been puttering around the workbench a little, but I've had mostly odd handyman jobs around the house that needed attending. I had a further scare yesterday. I was looking for some tools in my garage and for some reason, I lost my balance and fell. I am still a little achy on the left side today.

I am not a super religious man, but I'd appreciate any thoughts and prayers you can send my way.