Looking Forward to Vacation

Planning a trip to Maryland to visit an old family friend in the last week of August. Might see a couple museums or something, but likelier to just relax and shoot the breeze - I want to get away from work. At least this month I won't have to do storytime as the auditorium we normally do it in will have its air conditioner replaced. (As a hint to how chaotic a mere storytime and craft can be, we literally do not have room anywhere else in the branch for the 30-50 people we typically get for programs!)

I'll still have chess and occasional other boardgames to run, as they have few enough attendees that they can fit elsewhere. I've also been building my Warhammer Alliance minis in preparation for a painting program August 9. Like papercrafting, I find assembling the little guys to be enormously relaxing - I have 18 of 48 done so far. Though I may stop at the half that are fantasy, given the DnD theme of the event. I also have leftover elves, dwarves, goblins and Skaven from old Warhammer starter sets that will look more like DnD character miniatures than the Space Marines and Necrons also in the box. After building, I'll undercoat them with the one spray can I have, white. I prefer light brown for figures that may end up any color, but white will also allow kids to experiment with Contrast paints if they like. I am a bit torn as I don't know the numbers we'll get; most will be playing DnD and we have five seven-player tables planned, plus a couple other "background" activities. It might be best to just use the Warhammer Alliance stuff to keep things structured. There's a good chance we'll have an older crowd too, more amenable to instruction to thin their paints and clean their brushes. (I'll finally have a partner this time to help refill the water!)

I missed my goal of finishing the BEF minis. I have 16 built and ten armless/headless bodies based, plus the prone figures who I haven't decided yet whether (or how) to put on round bases. 

An officer conversion has a cuppa while his LDV comrades
look on. My brother shouldn't have any problem painting these;
He doesn't know much about WWII but he has watched Dad's Army.

I also built six more of the Zvezda trees, but am struggling with the bigger ones. May have to try to get some completed Merit ones after all.

Readingwise, I am working my way through Henry Hyde's Wargaming Compendium for the second time; again, I find his style of wargaming writing (shared by the writers of Charge!, The War Game, and 1990s-2000s White Dwarf to be relaxing. And I need that. Also working on David Drake and Eric Flint's Belisarius series, about four novels in.

Oh, and I just dropped off two old military posters to be framed. Now I just need a second bedroom to turn into a gaming den...

Belated Blogaversary

In comparison with last year's post, I see that my posting rate has fallen even more, to 41 in my fourth year of blogging. Perhaps that's my "normal" rate now. This year did at least start off with a bang in the form of (heh) Blasthof.

I'm not as disappointed as I might be. Plenty of non-gaming stuff has happened this year to distract me. I haven't taken a real vacation in years, so am planning a couple visits to family and friends. After that ... who knows? I want to visit southern Ireland and Gibraltar in particular, lots of history to be found there. Also St. Augustine, which has been within reach for a decade but I still haven't gone.

• At home I've just figured out how to fit a third 2x4 table in my bedroom, so I now have a full-sized isolated table to try larger games on.
• Planning both some more Charge! test games and some small 40K experiments.
• Still have a bunch of Quar to paint.
• Lost a copy of Charles Grant's Scenarios for Wargames in the mail, but I have his different Scenarios for All Ages on the way as well.
• Also waiting on a squad of British police and two books for VBCW.
• Have volunteered to run a paint-and-take during a library DnD event in August. That will need a bit of planning, as my previous tries were exercises in what not to do...

Thanks for reading.

Urrgghhh

And then - appropriately, given my preferred periods of 18th Century and Colonials - came the plague.

I'm slowly recovering from a couple weeks of bronchitis. About five of my coworkers also came down with different things the first week, but it wasn't all the same - one had RSV, another Covid, etc. I've been back to work for a week but my voice hasn't improved yet enough to sing; a problem for a children's storyteller. I did manage to wrangle a three-day weekend, but whether I'll accomplish anything with it remains to be seen. I spent the sick week watching - but not imitating - painting videos.

I bought Helion's You Have to Die in Piedmont! when it appeared in ebook form, so I have that to read.

Of course, two days later Helion had a
Bank Holiday sale...

I'm still waiting on an order from the FLGS of the Kill Team starter set and thinking about Kings of War Champions. The latter appeals to me as it is "rank-and-flank" drained to the dregs, with single-base units and no morale rules (so that regiments simply disappear when they lose a combat).

Before going home yesterday I printed out some Color-Your-Own crusader/Rus knights and infantry Paperboys; I am thinking of making singular units with them for basic games. They have a Brettonian feel to them and I will try to reproduce some fictional heraldry, with Staedtler pens.

I am forced to admit that my "closet of shame" has pushed its way out into my bedroom, to the point at which I'm finding it difficult even to play small solo games:

I've just committed myself to run a Charge! demo at Krieg Haus sometime in the next few months, so I really need to either clean this off or at least play something on it already.

Then there's the painting backlog.

Yeah.

Well, hobbies are just that, something to relax with rather than bother you. Have I taken that too much to heart over the years? At least I have a few things to work towards. See you soon, hopefully in less than a month...

Still a Long Month

Work hasn't been going great. I am getting tired of Florida. Still not much interested in play when I get home, despite the burgeoning collection. Or maybe it's just my table, crowded high with game boxes that are in the way of actually laying out a board and playing something! (One of the reasons I'm tempted to move is to get a second bedroom and turn that into a proper game room.)

Been doing quite a bit of reading, nearly all milhist. Finished Barbara Tuchman's classic The Guns of August, now working on The Scramble for Africa. Both quite good, but the real reason is I'm trying to clear out my bookshelves a bit, by adding to those of the club. Got a campaign game at Das Krieg Haus this morning, so I will bring some in and put on the shelves.

Hobby-wise, built some Paperboys Romans to go with the Britons, and started on the 10th edition 40K beginner set. The "beginner" rules are exactly the same as those in the Space Marine board game, which means the flame troopers can be led by an officer against a larger Tyranid horde.

Very nice "easy-to-build" figures.

Having built up my 8th edition Nurgle and Space Marine collections, I'm also tempted to pick up the current starter for Kill Team, which has some good character figures as well as (a first for GW) MDF terrain. The FLGS also has a 15% discount on GW and Warlord Games stuff.

Historical gaming? Will have to wait for a clear table! But I am still leaning towards the Athena Charge! Just need to dig back into my Wofun collection and get around to building and organizing the ones I bought last fall.

See you hopefully in a couple days with a battle report.

Three Years a Blogger

Huh.

I don't feel like I've accomplished as much this last year - gaming as well as blogging.

Year 1: 61 posts.

Year 2: 71 posts.

Year 3: 48 posts.

While the club has become more active, especially this year, I still haven't gotten there as often as I like. They are doing more weekday games now, which provides more opportunities, which I haven't always taken advantage of. I also hoped to go to Recon again, but an aging and picky cat has prevented me from being away from home for more than 24 hours. One member is planning a The Longest Day extravaganza - watch the movie, then play an epic game. Whether I'm willing to spend all afternoon on it, I dunno yet. I'm somewhere between depression and laziness at present, or maybe Executive Dysfunction, which is why I've been reading and picking away at my projects rather than anything more productive.

I did get to a local con last week, but not, strictly speaking, for gaming. I was helping man the library presence. In addition to a booth on the "floor", we were given an activity room to do as we liked, which meant crafts and board games. I hoped to demonstrate some one-page RPGs and Paperboys figure-building, but failed to prepare properly (under the assumption that a: it would be easy to find dice at a geek convention and b: that my coworkers would bring plenty of scissors). Will do better next time - another local con comes up in July, then Hurricon in September. (I won't be able to get away in August.)

The chess club at work is going well; since chess doesn't really appeal to me, I've been experimenting with variants and a few other games. My Scottish Museum version of Tafl -

- has actually seen some play, and I've been reading Discworld and thus tempted by Thud. I learned Peter Dennis of Paperboys has even does some work on Discworld products.

Speaking of Peter, a lot of new stuff has come out recently, but it's inspired more reading than playing. A "pirate" series, some late 17th-century figures, and new large ships are tempting, especially the ships which could be used in the club's regular Limeys and Slimeys games. But they will be intimidating to build! Another thing I was looking forward to was the 10mm Seven Years War series in Wofun plastic, which have just come out this week but at 500USD for the full pack. Again, tempting, but is it really a good idea? I held off on the paper ones because I wanted to try the plastic 10s, but I may put them off for a bit. The 17th-century types are designed for the Monmouth rebellion, so I read up on it. Interviewing a glider veteran of Operation Varsity - and finally getting hold of Featherstone's Tackle Model Soldiers This Way - got me building some US troops, but that too has paused.

I intended to try the Mike Lambo solo ECW rules with my Memoir '44 tiles. Haven't.

I've been wanting to paint up my two-past-editions Warhammer and 40K starter sets. Haven't.

Wanted to play some more Charles Grant solo scenarios. Nope.

Wanted to play more Charge! ...

I have managed to amass quite a bit of VCBW stuff and even terrain to go with it. But no serious play. Misplaced a couple of the (hard-to-obtain) books, too - will probably find them minutes after I've bought new ones, heh.

Also built up and organized quite a collection of 18th Century 18mm Wofuns. One big solo game.

I've built a lot of Paperboys, but aside from that one big game, without direction.

It's an odd combination of Asperger's and what I suspect is executive dysfunction. Together, they are a project-killer, when it comes down to it. I edge towards building/painting something, but would rather procrastinate (read, watch, design) than do it.

That's not to say I'm not enjoying myself, sometimes immensely. I'm proud of what little I have achieved this year, in particular having finished a gaming painting project (two units) for the first time in, oh, around a decade.

What next? Given past events, more reading and more watching painting videos, inching towards doing some work.

I don't mean to feel sorry for myself here. It sounds like it, I know, and I'm having a hard time convincing myself otherwise. But there is more to gaming than play, or emptying the Closet of Shame. Just gotta remember that. The play's [not] the [only] thing, and one thing I've been trying to get across with this blog, besides just tracking my projects and encouraging myself, is to demonstrate that it's just part of the whole "hobby." As Featherstone pointed out more than once. I've just done more of the research and planning side of things, or at least it feels that way.

Friendship is a thing too, which is why I've forced myself to go to the club a little more often than usual.

Whatever happens in the next year, I'll still enjoy it. And I hope you will too. Thanks for your support.

Errgh

I'm off sick going on four days here. Luckily not Covid, but bad enough that I'm not up to any solo gaming. A little reading, a little watching, lots of liquid and cats.

I did cut out a few new Peter Dennis patent "cross-trees."

The intent to start on a forest for the Charles S. Grant scenario. I also have lots of aquarium matting and a handful of "proper" trees, but it might look rather unsylvan in the end.

The other thing I hoped to do was repair a few WWI ships from a batch I 3D printed a few years ago.

These are some of the first things I 3D-printed at work around five years ago. I only got to run the Jutland scenario (from Junior General) once, with paper minis. These photos are from 2019:

The German High Seas Fleet (left) is drawn into a trap by
the British Grand Fleet (upper right)

BatCruRon 3 and a dozen Brit battleships.
One of BatCruRon 1 has already been lost.

Germans horribly disorganized but pounding the Brit BCs into scrap.

Anyway, I later used som models from Thingiverse to reproduce these in plastic - at half strength, so the Germans have three battle cruisers and eight battleships, the British four battlecruisers and twelve battleships. 

I even made a "travel box" for them, with measuring devices,
dice, hit-point trackers and simple QRS cards.

I left them on the flat bases leftover from the printing process, and wrote the names over whiteout. A few were snapped off by inquisitive kids, and I decided to glue them back on - only to discover that time, and possibly being left in the car, had caused many of the bases to warp.

So now I'm undecided. I could:

• Use my label maker to make proper labels and stick those under the ships (invisible unless you pick them up, at which point repositioning is tricky)
• Make paper tags (unseemly and jarring to my eyes on such small models).
• "Unwarp" the bases (How?).

Suggestions welcomed.

Lastly, while looking on Facebook for those old game photos, I found that NASA has just published a role-playing game adventure, called The Lost Universe. I'll definitely be checking that out, as I need activities to go with Earth Day, the upcoming solar eclipse, etc.

Dragging myself to bed now. Until next time.

So, About Those Resolutions...

See previous post.

Haven't gotten any of 'em done. Been doing some reading, though.

An old classic.

Ordered this one off Ebay, received it today, and tore thru it (compact for all the info in there). A quick and easy read. I first encountered it on Man of Tin's blog and was intrigued by the simple rules included. The 18th-century ones are far too simple and brief, but the WWII and Ancient ones a touch more complex and interesting. The Ancient rules seem influenced by Tony Bath and nicely dovetail with the Ancient naval rules in Featherstone's Naval Wargames, one of my very favorites of his guides - put the two together and you could have a real campaign! Now that Paperboys has some WWII stuff, I am considering trying the WWII rules in the chapter as well. The rest of the book is pretty outdated. Even in the day I can't imagine that the instructions for molding and painting miniatures would have been all that useful, as they're hard to visualize. But then, I've been spoiled by heavily illustrated guides. There is almost nothing on terrain either, though the book does focus much more on the soldiers than on the "backdrop."

Found a classic old used bookstore in the next county - the sort with narrow aisles, towering dark shelves and that dusty-book smell. Picked up a Ballantine volume on the Messerschmitt 109 written by the prolific aviation author Martin Caidin, a curious pair of small volumes of "War Pictures by British Artists" printed in 1942, and a history of the Northwest Frontier published in 1908 - should be plenty of gaming inspiration in the latter! There were even some "propaganda-adventure" books for children as published during the war years - an entire series about a Women's Army Corps member, and another about a USN air-midshipman in the Everglades. Also an enormous (and tempting) French volume on the history of toy soldiers that included a bit by Featherstone about wargaming. I'll definitely go back.

The author was killed at Gallipolli.

I've also just borrowed Christopher Duffy's Fire and Stone, on siege warfare. His stuff is always good, but this is one I've overlooked. Today on Virtual Wargames Club someone mentioned it contains commentary on wargaming sieges, so I'll check it out.

Organizing/Labeling: Having observed some clear labels in use at my new workplace (we use them in place of stamps or preprinted titles on paperwork) I was leaning toward bringing printer label sheets in and doing that. But today during Virtual Wargames Club someone suggested a label-maker. I'll check tomorrow if the local office store has one I can play with before purchasing.

Monthly Solo Game: Er... well, I have tomorrow free, so I will try to do something. I am leaning toward the Mike Lambo ECW solo; I haven't tried making up the boards with Memoir '44 tiles yet, and that's one reason I bought the latter. Charge! won't work until I do some labeling, and while I thought of trying a Programmed Scenario with TSATF or Bundok and Bayonet, I'm out of practice with the former and have never played the latter. So they may not be the best way of "getting back in the groove."

Library Gaming: While I'm a children's librarian again, the population at my new branch turns out to be overwhelmingly preschool. So gaming won't happen - much. There are a few teens and a busy chess club, so I may try to fit in some gridded games. Not enough to run roleplaying games, though, unless we promote it, and I'm not in the Teen department anymore so that's not really my bailiwick anymore. I've run games before with elementary and middle-schoolers, but there's not enough kids of that age at any given time to play - although the branch actually owns several DnD volumes I'd like to make use of. There's also a "music club," so I get to play folksongs and talk about history on Fridays. In the meantime, I'm still building Paperboys - a US Colored regiment for display during Black History Month, and a 40mm figure of George Washington which might work as a craft for older kids for President's Day. In March will come paper suffragettes.

Painting: None at all. There are the 40K minis, and there are some French Resistance types that would fit in with my VBCW-ish collection. Just need to buckle down on those.

I find that it's the getting started I have the most difficulty with in doing a project - once I actually get off my butt and start, I become absorbed and can keep going for ages. Need to do that tomorrow. Good night, and hope your projects are going better than mine!

Crafting Unsuccess, and Thoughts on Fixing It

It should be obvious by the late dearth of posting that my life is going downhill at present. Work has been impressively busy, and my usual reaction to the end of a bad day is to be as unproductive as possible when I get home. This is not good for my personal life; unfortunately, it's not much good for hobbying, either.

I find gluing and cutting Paperboys very relaxing, so have been building several pages worth of fantasy types to try out Dragon Rampant. Of course, I haven't gotten around to actually gaming with them, and pictures and play will have to wait for another post.

One of the issues at work is that I get sidetracked very easily - regular readers of this blog will have noticed. This means that I lose track of projects, even the ones I was looking forward to. Yesterday, it was my turn to entertain twenty-plus sixth graders from a nearby school that regularly sends its students to visit us. Good for our statistics at least. I was reminded that morning, and went into panic mode.

In hindsight, it would have been smarter to break out my mini Battle of Hampton Roads kit that I 3-d printed years ago and rarely run since. The rules are simple, the two model ships attractive, and the scenario can work between large teams (everyone gets a turn to "shoot"). Instead, having been aimlessly cutting up Paperboys for weeks, my mind shot to the Undead pages of the series.

Halloween is coming up, after all. Every year we do a well-received haunted house, and since I don't like dressing up or anything approaching horror, I get drafted to help with games and crafts for the littler kids and families who don't want to be jump-scared. Given the "success" of my painting program a few months ago, that's what I've been leaning towards, but now it's a tossup between that and papercrafting.

I shouldn't have experimented with it on this short notice, though. An enterprising and encouraging coworker pointed out that we'd have an hour or more, so it would be okay to prepare less. It takes fifteen minutes tops to build a Paperboys base, right?

HA! 

Here's the result. It should be noted that none of these errors are the kids' fault, but mine. And they did mostly enjoy themselves, so despite the chaos I deemed the program a successful failure.

Count the errors:
Left and Left Rear: Not bad actually, but didn't bother to cut
around the figure edges. I grant you this can be tricky for many.
Center: Built the base correctly, then stuck the mini onto the
underside of it.
Center Right: Stuck the minis on a plain bit of card.
Right: Again not bad, but didn't fold the base-paper edges under
(as seen at Center).

I posted this photo on the American Library Association's "League of Librarian Gamers" Facebook group with a rueful comment about learning what not to do next time, and a moderator asked me about the lessons learned.

Here they are, combined with the ones learned from the painting program.

1. Above all, don't leave attendees to their own devices. They'll make mistakes, or become bored or frustrated if not directed. Most of the rest of the lessons are in the name of getting this first one right. Games Day has "paint-and-take" tables, but I'd love to know how they deal with newbies.
2. Attendees should be in a compact space, where everyone can see and be instructed by the presenter at once. This way, there are fewer delays and less leaving attendees to their own devices.
3. All supplies should be close by and, so far as possible, already distributed to each space. If possible, in separate "kits" for each seat. Again, less time wasted, and less confusion for attendees.
4. Prep as much as possible so the attendees (or presenters) don't have to. Fewer steps are usually better, especially for younger kids. Assemble and undercoat minis, for example; let them get to the good part right away.
5. If possible, have all attendees do the same step at the same time. This works better for a "timed" event, though; a "pickup" program is trickier, in which case see 4, 7, and 8.
6. If time permits, demonstrate the full activity to all before embarking on it, not just an example of the finished product. A video can be an attractive example.
7. Instructions (and useful tips) must be simple, clear and visible. Several participation games I've seen included poster-sized combat results tables for all to see, rather than fumbling with rules sheets that also take up room on the table Full-color images, or, again, videos, are useful.
8. If at all possible, there should be two or more presenters, thoroughly practiced. A single person will exhaust herself. Part splitting the work and part the need for multitasking; a presenter off replacing paint water can't welcome someone who just sat down at the table, demonstrate a technique, or remind kids to Thin Their Paints.

I will probably have to update this post as I make more mistakes, but it'll do for now!

First update: I just watched an episode of the Painting Phase podcast on Youtube with ex-Games Workshop painter Louise Sugden. For a few minutes, she discusses teaching a roomful of kids to paint goblins.

And doing it basically the same way my hapless painting program went. Deliberately.

She was working with 5-7 year-olds, provided coloring sheets, and told them to "tell a story with color." What does a green goblin make you think of? Grass! Why is your goblin red? He lives in lava! It sounds fantastic, and really made me rethink the success of my program. No techniques, no instructions that will disappoint them when they get it wrong, be willing to waste paint and brushes. It'll still work.

It's two-plus hours, all interesting, but for the bit I'm talking about, skip to One hour and forty-four minutes in.

This makes me feel way more confident about the prospect of doing a painting project for Halloween.

For older kids, I might use our tech lab to film videos of my own, in part because the "official" how-to-build-Paperboys and how-to-paint-your-Space-Marines-in-just-five-colors videos are still around fifteen minutes long. Shorter vids where they don't show you every color and technique may be useful for veterans, but they might be just as good for quickly teaching kids. 

Stuff I'm not getting done

Alan of the Duchy of Tradgardland has been discussing the "Black Dog," a euphemism for hobby depression. Hadn't heard the expression before, but it's caught my interest as I've got the same thing - exhausted after work, I haven't been doing anything at all despite at least three tentative projects to work on. A little reading, a little watching of Youtube painting videos in a desperate effort to inspire me to paint something of my own. In between going to work, I've been imitating my sleepy cats! Haven't even eaten much, which at least has lost me a little weight. So in an effort to get past that, I'm listing my projects here.

I've taken most of the week off due to having to "use or lose" some of my leave hours. Let's see if I can achieve anything at all...

• Building and painting some Warlord Games French partisans, for my vague Very British Civil War project. Bought on the spur of the moment, these were fairly expensive so I really do need to do something with them, but have never painted anything civilian or WWII-ish so am not sure how to color them. Suggestions welcomed.

A squad of rifles, a couple heavy weapon teams, and a
"French 75" with crew.

• Trying another round of either Charge! or the One Hour Wargame variation by Grid-Based Wargaming. Both would use eight-wound elements, so I've made a handful of cardboard counters also inspired by GBW. I should probably use another scenario of Programmed Wargames Scenarios, as I've only tried the first so far. I'd like to go through them all in progression, but really should settle on a ruleset first.

20mm a side, these will denote casualties or hit points.

• Testing "slap chop" painting, that is progressively lighter drybrushing before using Contrast paints. This makes them very quick to show impressive results, which would make for a useful painting program at work, and luckily I have nineteen of the new plastic Termagants to work with. I need to try one to start with to see how it looks, and have collected bone, red and black Contrast paints to try with. If it works out, I'll pre-drybrush the rest, take them to work next week, and use them in my effort to restart a weekly gaming program for teens. I'm also considering recording a painting video in the same vein as Games Workshop ones, using the electronic gizmos in Youmedia to promote the teen space and interest kids in my own programming.

Painted black - mostly.

Will I actually achieve anything? Time will tell.

Running ragged

Three weeks of not wanting to do anything except sleep, stare at the computer or read when I got home from work.

Two still to go.

The one good day of the last few weeks was when I received the Games Workshop "Warhammer Alliance" box. Here's the contents:

Ten base paints and a dozen starter brushes. The package didn't
come out of its box intact.

Box packed with twenty-four sprues, each with two push-fit minis.
They can also be pressed off the sprue - no clippers needed!

Card terrain, rulers and tokens. Sadly, the fold-points aren't
scored, which makes them harder to fold.

A dozen basic dice, same as the ones that come in the commercial
starter sets.

Two assembled sprues. The Marines are easy, the Necrons a 
little more spindly. I'll probably undercoat with a tan or
bone color.

A quick skirmish played through as an example.

Not pictured: Some nice laminated paint palettes, one in each magazine. The magazines make it clear these are aimed more at the under-12 crowd, but as I said, this was the ONE good day and I dunno when (or if) I'll get a chance to get something going with the kids or teens. They certainly won't be used as intended by the series of activities within, and the teens are more interested in gaming anyway. The most likely end for them is a paint-and-take I'm planning during our Summer Reading kickoff. I've also got Fort Wagner to run this month - if only I can get three hours straight and an audience!

We have talked desultorily about reinstating the weekly gaming period - maybe combining it with the board-gaming we're already doing with younger kids - but so many other things are going on I haven't had a chance to think about it. The theory is that if we run DnD every week for months on end, the early weeks will see little activity but interest and notice will grow as we keep doing it. But we need to make time for it.

One other thing I did get from work - these War of the Pacific
ship prints. The masts are too supported and unusable, so I'll have to 
find another solution.

Finally, I ordered another small batch of foam hills, which were listed delivered online but not in my mailbox or at my door. Gotta report them lost - hopefully they will have been shipped back to the maker. Urgh.

Have a happier weekend.

Tired, just reading

The last couple weeks have been exhausting. It's election season, so my schedule is wacky - different days, coming in early, staying late. We also had a huge Halloween program - successful as usual, but a lot of hard work building a haunted house. I've been coming home and not wanting to game. After tonight, I'll be working seven days straight. Even under normal circumstances, it takes a little gumption for me to set a game and get playing. Maybe that's why I lean towards reading.

I've been hoping to run my Battery Wagner scenario at work, mostly because the model I built is not in the best shape and I want to use it before I lose it. My office is shared and crowded with assorted books, crafts and supplies, so the model keeps getting tossed around. Unfortunately, I'm missing the minis I assembled for it. Not even sure whether they're at work or home - I'm keeping an eye out for the foam sandwich-box I placed them in. My best bet of finding them again is to re-assemble the army, of course... I have time if I decide to run the game in February for Black History Month. Or did I separate them by side and put them in smaller boxes? Can't remember.

I worked at running a game of Bundok and Bayonet but keep finding excuses to put it off. Not enough light; too many cats; not enough dice. I do want to get it done in part because next post is my hundredth and it would seem appropriate. We'll see. Instead, I'll inflict my bibliophilia on the reader.

• I own a copy of the US Navy Bluejackets' Manual, issue 1943. An original printing, with 1,100+ Bible-thin pages, stains, and the original owner's name stamped inside the cover (WEINER M). It is not the sort of book to read straight through, but I'm doing it. Unlike other wartime books I've handled, it's not dry and crumbly, and quite small enough to handle easily. Currently in the early pages, which focus on discipline. I find it interesting that they state (two years before Nuremberg): "It is possible for an order to be unlawful bt it is not lawful for you to refuse to obey such an order." They weasel around this by pointing out that being directed to "compound a felony" or perform a criminal act would be an "abomination" to the Navy and you wouldn't be charged in a court-martial if you refused... 

        The next section is on service schools and self-improvement, and ships' libraries are briefly    mentioned. There was even an interlibrary loan service by which books (generally educational ones) could be sent out to ships for use.

• Driving to and from work, I've re-listened to The Hobbit, one of my favorites. As the genesis of much of fantasy gaming, there is a lot of inspiration and pure atmosphere to be found in it. And, as a children's book, it is simply charming and engaging.
• Wargaming 19th Century Europe, 1815-1878, by Neil Thomas, is eye-opening. I haven't been that interested in his rules, but his overview of the period and well-considered reviews of battles are useful for someone who hasn't looked at it before. When it comes to the 19th century, I've always focused either on the American Civil War or the colonial aspects of European armies. So while I don't expect to play (though the suggestion of small tables is tempting) I've learned quite a bit. I can understand now the appeal, for example, of the wars in Italy to Jon Freitag at the Palouse Wargaming Journal. Even if I want to try playing, though, I haven't the right miniatures - the closest I've got are the Little Wars Paperboys, which can provide Franco-Prussian War figures more suited to skirmish.
• Right now listening to a 40K novel, Dark Imperium. I haven't played 40K in ages and have been a bit dismayed by the changes in lore, but the novel (which covers the return of a ten-millenia-dead icon of the story) helps a little. I've always been more interested in story than gameplay anyway, and some of the available fiction is good in its own right, with no apologies for it being tie-in fiction. I've been talking at work with one of the teens about the Warhammer and 40K worlds, as he plays some of the video games, and it's rekindled my interest, at least to the point of painting and modeling - if I can manage to get that done between everything else! I've even considered joining Games Workshop's library-and-school outreach program, if only to give myself an excuse to run more painting programs. I'd have to promote them more assiduously, though.
• Like Wolves on the Fold, by Mike Snook, is an excellent "sequel" to his book on Isandlwana. In fact, it's more like the second part of a duology, as much of it is actually given over to discussion of "leftover" elements of the Isandlwana story, and other aspects of the war, including a potted overview and a short traveller's guide to the battlefields. I've really enjoyed his writing and will look out for more of it. Like some of my favorite historical writing, it also makes me want to visit Zululand and see the battlefields.
• What else? A Squadron/Signal book on German heavy armored cars and another (reread) on railway artillery. Phillip Bradley's Battle for Shaggy Ridge, a rewrite of an earlier book but excellent, on an obscure battle in New Guinea which, given the terrain, would be fine inspiration for a skirmish campaign. (It also makes me want to look up obscure planes, like the CAC Boomerang and Vultee Vengeance, which saw useful service in this theater but almost nowhere else.)

For my next post, #100, I hope it'll be more interesting than a catalog (heh) of books. If there's anything you'd like to see in future, I could use the suggestions. Have a good weekend, and if you're American, a good Election Day.