Where does the time go?

Five years I've been at this as of yesterday.

Wow. Doesn't feel that long.

Presently, I'm in a slump. More reading, less creativity, no play. Except occasional chess and quite a bit of Exploding Kittens on Monday afternoons, which is increasingly popular with the kids at work. Have had eighteen attendees at the last two chess sessions, so I am keen to try a Portable Wargame at some point.

I haven't been to the club or even to my local tavern for a while - too tired after work and hard to get specific days off. We are getting at least one new coworker next week, which will help.

I've been beavering away at units from the Paperboys AWI volume, currently onto French and grenadier regiments. The vague thought is to use them for a display during summer and maybe a game. Teenagers are the ideal audience for this, but even our teen advisory board has halted with the end of the school year, so no idea where this goes.

I also haven't done anything with the Pike and Shotte sets, either ECW or Japanese. For AWI and Pikeman's Lament, I've got some Wofun figures on the way from Raven Banner Games that, when they arrive, will further delay any painting or play with the paper or conventional models, but might at least get me to actually put something on the gaming table.

I'm about to move out of my apartment, as well (and putting off packing or downsizing). I'm hoping to move into a two-bedroom and use the second bedroom as a gaming room and library, because I am literally out of shelf space even after adding a spinning shelf that holds most of my gaming and history collection. My "4x6" tables take up most of my bedroom's remaining floorspace, with most of the game boxes packed under it. The other distraction is cats who are hard to keep out of the bedroom while I'm playing, building or painting - with another bedroom I can shut the door and return to a project without worry that a pet will have scattered whatever was on the table...

So I'm not looking forward to the move, but I am looking forward to extra space and, effectively, a new start.

I really feel like I've been slowing down over the last year, but according to the post numbers to the side I am actually still at an average of one a week over the entire time this blog has existed. Not too bad then.

Starting on the Fife and Drum minis.

Some Paperboys from last month.

An abortive Pikeman's Lament test I kept putting off
until I just put it away.

Over time, the constant, I think, has been engagement. I've done some solo games, but what really helps is gaming with the local group, exchanging comments with other bloggers, and even talking with my brother, who has his own difficulties that he subsumes with gaming projects. I find myself painting (with markers) whilst talking with him over Discord. Community, even the nebulous sort you get online, really helps. The comments here have slowed down, but I suspect that's partly because of my own slow posting.

Not sure how to end this post. Hope that things will be better in the future, I suppose. I was hoping not to leave my apartment until I moved out of state, but if I have to move, it might as well be into a better situation for my hobby (and my pets, who need more room too). I hope I'll have an answer soon, and some hobby progress, too. See you then, and thanks for reading.

My Gaming-Adjacent Week

Monday: Chess Club. Won one, lost two. One of the club members has an online score of 2200. (!) Also ran a hasty demo of DnD for two mothers and two kids - one about nine years old and the other about six. The six-year-old quickly got bored, though I tried to distract him with a pet for his character, and his mother did her best to enlist his help. The plot, such as it was, involved a dragon that had just stolen the town's sheep, and the party hired by a desperate mayor. The characters were a dwarf, a magic-user, an elf and a knight. Many 20-siders were rolled, generally with easy difficulties, but a couple very low rolls added tension and interest. The party headed down a forest path in the direction of the dragon, climbed a tree to look for him, attracted his attention and had to fight him while he was slashing his way through the trees and failing to flame them due to a magical shield. The session ended with an (assisted by magic) throw of the knight's sword into the dragon's mouth - he gagged, dropped the sheep on the party, and the players got their treasure and an idea of how the game works.

We also played a couple rounds of Exploding Kittens, which seems popular. and I've been idly messing with Tantrix as well (a puzzle game). I would like to try a Portable Wargame once I get some more Paperboys made, or the Perrys' box set will work as well. I nearly bought a painted set of it at Recon.

Tuesday: Cut some more Paperboys for club display, this time English knights from the 1314 volume.

Wednesday: A little more Paperboy assembly, but experimented by sandwiching them over laminating plastic for greater durability. Surprisingly stayed stuck on to the plastic well, but of course harder to cut out -a danger of dulling the scissors, I think.

Thursday: Opened my mailbox to find a handful of Bad Squiddo figures I'd ordered from North Star and forgot about. They have an amazing line of WWII women that make great character figures or small units for VBCW.

Friday: Some idle Paperboys. I've decided to work my way through the AWI book with heavier bases for possible play at work during the summer. So far have finished a 32-man regiment of American militia and started on two 16-man units of American light infantry (the intent is for Charge!)

Saturday: Started a few more Paperboys for the club, this time ECW dragoons on foot. Might do Highlanders next, as I'm looking for variety. 

My brother has finished his gift painting commissions for me! Here's the duardin bookkeeper: