2024 in review

The best laid plans, as they say, once again... (and we'll see how 2025's plans look in the next post!)

There's a big 'ole right outside
my bedroom window, and it's
full of water!

Made it to the end of May with my sanity intact, albeit a little busier than I would have liked. Was driving back from the BattleTech English Nationals when... Son phones, to say there is water coming into the house. 

I'll spare you the full details, but suffice it to say we had to wait on Anglia Water paying for most of the downstairs carpets and the music room floor to be replaced, had to move out the grand piano for several months, and had most of our worldly goods stuffed into three fewer rooms than it was meant to go into. And we were probably among the luckiest of the 50+ houses affected - it's all sorted by the end of August. 

After a bit of thought, we decided to take a cash settlement for the damage to the kitchen (slate tiles fine, but a fair amount of water damage on the trim and side panels of the units) as a deposit on the new kitchen we've been promising ourselves since about 2005...

Mid-October, they strip the old units out. Take one look at the plaster under the kitchen window, note that the damp meter is bouncing off the end stop, and realise that we can't proceed until that's been fixed. (Nothing to do with the flood, it's just the price you pay for having an 1860's house!) Have you ever tried finding someone competent to fix damp in a 150 year old house at short notice? We were being quoted "mid November, but that's just to come and have a look. Expect January for a fix."

Huge credit to Steve from Elite Preservation who gave up a weekend in November to fix it. Next problem, finding a new install slot given everyone's booked up till Christmas. Justin (our original installer) again worked miracles with his team to get three days free in the last week before Christmas, and as off now we have working appliances and most of a kitchen.

We have however been living out of an air fryer and microwave in the laundry for two months, which it no real fun, and the dining room has been full of the stuff we took out of the kitchen in October!

I am not a fan of water this year.

In other non-hobby news, 

• our surviving parents are both surviving, although Anne's mum has advanced Alzheimer's.
• I have one really nasty contract job hanging over me (involving converting a massive suite of undocumented Excel tables to MySQL) which is making me feel guilty about getting stuck into other hobby-related intensive computer work. Hopefully I am getting this finished this week (currently finding the stupid mistakes :D).

Last year's plans:

• Finish the Dux Compendium :D (attempting to achieve headspace for that at present)
• Didn't happen :( See above
• Paint a lot more BattleTech stuff (no, more than that, the Kickstarter's arriving Q2 and, erm, well, I may have indulged in considerable retail therapy....)
• Kickstarter arrived end Q4. I did however buy three people's BattleTech collections off eBay, painted a lot of stuff, and set up a thriving sideline in selling off the ones I didn't want :D
• Run campaigns at the club
• What a Cowboy (deferred from 2023 for obvious reasons) - Q1/2
• Didn't happen :( (annoyed about that)
• BattleTech: Alpha Strike - details TBC - Q3/4
• Didn't happen largely because the KS was late.
• Run RPGs @ home. My long-running (since 2019) weekly sanity break Zoom-based 5E campaign finished in December, and I'm aiming to split my time going forward with two fortnightly ones:
• a 5E campaign set in a different corner of my world
• Running, party now 4th level
• a BattleTech RPG campaign set on - well, that's a secret for now
• Not yet,.
• Start on the Epic ACW plastic (and MDF) pile
• Again, not yet. I remind you that half our worldly possessions were cluttering up the workshop for all the summer.
• Finish the 15mm Bulge forces and buildings, consider an IABSM Bulge narrative campaign later in the year
• Ah... nope. 
• Get someone else to paint my 28mm British and French, and play some Sharp Practice 2
• Did! Thanks Dan!
• Play with the laser cutter
• Yup.
• Blog and podcast as and when.
• Surprisingly, yup...

In addition to the above:

• Started a new BattleTech-specific podcast.
• Actually had a guest on The Miller's Tale!
• Built/3D printed a lot of 6-7mm scale scenery
• Ran a number of fun show games
• Painted/Bitched on Wednesdays (which saved what's left of my sanity)

Nick Hawkins

picture from Wyvern Wargamers

Greatly saddened to record the passing of Nick Hawkins, Lardie, Peterborough Wargames Club member and gamer.

I got to know Nick properly when he started attending the club last year, and brought along both his WW2 game (Props and Pilots) and the Flintloque-inspired Sharp Practice 2 variant, which we later christened "Twilight Practice". Like many gamers, he could get deeply into subjects, and talk (as we like to say on the Meeples podcast) for England about such things as obscure WW2 aircraft, 3D printing, etc etc.

He'll be sadly missed - I'm hoping we can still arrange to put on his Twilight Practice game at Hammerhead, although I'm not intending to take any steps on that score for a while.

His brother writes:

I am writing to share with you some very sad news. My dearly beloved brother Nick has passed away at the very young age of 55. He died at home in his bed of natural causes. Just as this will come as a shock to you, so it has been a shock to me. Nick had not knowingly been in poor health but had an undiagnosed condition that caused his death. Thankfully, I am assured that he would gradually have lost consciousness and would not have experienced any pain. 

We all have our memories of Nick, – too many to share. To me though in amongst the great intelligence, numerous skills and his human frailties, he was always my very loving and much loved big brother. His loss has left a void that will never be filled.

Tor Gaming poll

The guys from Tor Gaming (responsible for the 'stitch punk' world of Relics) have just posted a survey that I'd encourage you to take. The initial questions are slanted a bit towards their product (fair's fair!) but I for one will be very intrigued to see the answers to some of the later ones.

Even if they did forget 20mm as a figure scale :D

The survey is here.

Osprey's new Games division

From their press release today (via @Wargamerdotcom on Twitter):

Osprey Publishing is expanding its product list with the creation of a dedicated games division. Osprey Games will follow the great successes enjoyed by the company’s miniature wargaming lines with new products, and will also expand to include board and card games, allowing Osprey both to strengthen and diversify its position in these thriving niche sectors.

With the 2008 release of Field of Glory in collaboration with Slitherine Strategies Ltd, Osprey Publishing began to focus specifically on a hobby with which it had always had a very close relationship – miniatures wargaming. While Osprey books had long provided guides for figure painters, scenario writers and wargamers of all stripes, Field of Glory was the first product specifically created for this audience. Hot on the heels of this incredibly successful release came other projects, including the Force on Force modern rules (with Ambush Alley Games) and Renaissance and Napoleonic versions of the Field of Glory rules. More recently, the Bolt Action World War II rules (with Warlord Games) and the Osprey Wargames series of smaller rulebooks have established Osprey as one of the foremost publishers of wargaming rules.

[...] 

In addition to expanding the existing wargaming lines, Osprey Games is also going to develop board and card games, applying Osprey’s reputation for high-quality artwork to a whole new market, and is set to start recruiting for a Games Developer to manage this side of the division. The board and card game hobby has become increasingly popular in recent years, and, much like wargaming, can be seen as a natural extension of Osprey’s publishing pedigree.

Interesting, but hardly unexpected. My one fervent hope, having played several of their 'small book' releases (In Her Majesty's Name, Of Gods and Mortals and Dux Bellorum), is that they'll employ at least a part time proofreader/editor who plays wargames[1]. There's a common thread running through several of their rulebooks that, while they're very prettily laid out books, it's a royal pain to find anything in the rules in a hurry. They just aren't geared for the gamer to find rules in mid-game.

[1] Say... wait. I've done that. :D

Friday news roundup

Just a quick one :D

The Dreadball Xtreme Kickstarter is (predictably) off like the proverbial rocket - clearing $200K of its initial $100K goal in about 5 hours. The cynic on me notes that it feels more like a preorder than a Kickstarter, and I find it hard to believe that Mantic couldn't deliver it all by other means anyway.

The next batch of Chain of Command lists are in motion - the British list for the early part of the Western Desert campaign is up: one possible opponent (the 1940 Italian army) is already available, and it looks like I missed mentioning them at the time. Next up should be 8th Army and DAK, and after that, apparently, lists for Operation: Barbarossa.

On the subject of CoC army lists, if there's anyone out there with access to WW2 Greek military organisation charts and reads modern Greek, Rich could use the help, since none of the CoC lists get published without research.

PMC Games and Caliver team up

I missed this about a month ago, but as I was considering buildings for my Home Guard campaign, I was having a look around…

You will notice quite a few of PMC's resin buildings in club reports, not least because we bought a boatload a couple of years ago. They're very pretty, but were usually only available at shows, via direct mail order or via their eBay store, and did have something of a reputation for being very very slow.

Imagine my not inconsiderable delight when I discovered that the range is now being managed by that ubiquitous presence at nearly every war-games show, Caliver Books. Here's their press release:

Caliver Books is now the proud owner of the PMC GAMES range of high quality, painted Resin buildings ( 6mm; 15mm and 28mm -Biblical through to Gulf War ) and Steam Punk/ Very British Civil War vehicles & Boats

We are re-launching the buildings/scenery under the BATTLEFIELD BUILDINGS banner (see www.caliverbooks.com) and the rest under FORGOTTEN FRONT MINIATURES (www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk)

Once we are properly up and running we shall be selling all but the vehicles with painted or unpainted options - (The vehicles will always come un-assembled but undercoated). The price in the catalogue is for the PAINTED version. Postage will be added at the standard normal rate for now

At the moment[1] we are offering straight out of the molds buildings/scenery at 20% off the price as listed in the catalogue- - with payment by card only so we can deduct. 

We shall be taking a small display selection to shows, plus bundles of illustrated catalogue. Like Minifigs, these are mail order items produced in their own timescale by a specialist team separate from the normal mail order and as such they will not be available to grab off of the shelves when we are getting ready for a show, so no pre-orders I'm afraid though we are happy to take orders AT shows!

[1] Note this press release is at least a month old, so this may not still be true. (Mike)

Friday news roundup

A few odds and sods that have filtered through during my rather mental week at work.

• Plastic Soldier Company's 15mm Churchill's are imminent - sufficiently so, you may see some at SELWG this coming Sunday. £19.50 for a box of 5.
• Neil Shuck's been busy
• A new episode of View From The Verandah with Henry Hyde - always good for a long journey, this one includes a tribute to the late Don Featherstone
• A new Meeples and Miniatures - I had no hand in this one, but it includes a review of Dead Man's Hand (which I saw and really liked at Partizan) and an interview with its creator Stuart McCorquadale from Great Escape Games.
• The Winter War Kickstarter has finished, raising over £50K. I foresee some serious painting in my future. 
• Mantic's Mars Attacks Kickstarter is doing what Mantic Kickstarters do. I'm resisting this one :D

Miniature Bids - https://miniaturebids.com/

(logo used with permission)

Fed up of eBay seller charges? Yeah. Me too.

Understandably, then, I was intrigued by mention of a new site on various Facebook groups I'm a part of, namely Miniature Bids.

The short summary:

• no buyer seller fees
• pretty much similar approach to eBay in terms of fixed length, sealed max bid auctions
• payment by Paypal
• like eBay, it's just a 'venue' to contact buyer and seller

I've had a nose around (not least wearing my computer security hat), and it looks pretty good and competently put together. So far, there isn't a huge amount in the way of auctions up there, but people are gradually discovering it, and it's not all Games Workshop by a long shot :D

There are a couple of shortcomings at present in that you can't search by tag so (for example) finding all the WW2 28mm figures isn't as easy as you'd like, for one, and there's no way of restricting sale to specific countries, or having different postage rates to different countries. But, they are aware of these, and they're on the list to improve.

I've exchanged a few questions with Gavin from MB on Facebook, from which I've learned the following:

• the basic auction feature (as is currently available) will always be free (win!)
• their business model is to fund the site via advertising and a subscription model, where some site features will only be available to subscribers (but, and I quote, "even at the most expensive subscription package, it will still be cheaper then EBay's version")
• they have plans in place should they need to handle more traffic 
• they seem pretty responsive to questions and suggestions for new features (see above)

In summary? Definitely worth a look. I shall certainly be keeping an eye on it as a source of additions to the lead pile.... although, I'm still completely at a loss to understand this concept of people selling figures... :D

Friday news roundup

This may become a habit: we'll see.

• If you enjoyed the Meeples and Miniatures review of the game with myself and Mike Hobbs, you need to know that Mongoose have put up some previews of the new Judge Dredd rulebook. It'll still be available for download but if, like me, you like having a physical copy to play out of, this is the one to have. It's due out Oct 18th.

• Plastic Soldier Company are having a 30% off sale on all 15mm vehicle box sets from now through to midnight on Sunday 22nd. Must... resist...

• Upgrading to iOS7 as we speak. I wasn't going to, but one of the family members for whom I do Tech Support has been seduced by the siren call of the magic words 'Update Available', and now can't find anything... Argh!

• Just finished undercoating all my Home Guard. For anyone else interested, Pat has just put up final draft 2 of the unofficial list for Chain of Command, which should become official soon.

• Tomorrow I get to play Sharp Practice for the first time with Tim D.

Have a good weekend!

Skytrex in administration

In case you missed the news, wargames legends Skytrex are in administration. This seems to in part be something to do with the partners finally retiring and the fact that for various reasons they're not making money. Anyway as a result, everything on the website shows as out of stock, but you can sign up for a mailing list, which in theory is going to tell you when they start the closing down sale.

As I have various holes in my 15 mm collection for IABSM that I'm not prepared to pay Battlefront prices for, I shall be watching this with a keen interest.