All posts by Dana

I was born in East Orange, raised in Bloomfield, and went to school somewhere around Newark until my parents launched an exodus across NJ. I have been lucky enough to travel abroad. I read, play a couple of musical instruments, like movies, and do what I can to improve a rapidly aging body and mind. I currently work in Texas and live in Florida. I have moved over two dozen times in my life. My tiny armies and navies have followed me on my march across the US. Eventually we hope to end our nomadic existence and settle in one place.
General

Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep

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Games Workshop has tended to approach gaming in an all inclusive way, unsurprising since they sell both rules and miniatures. So there has always been a strong emphasis on painting. This book is organized in alphabetized sections which may seem odd but still works. It provides a handy short reference on painting.
The local cable company seems incapable of providing an Internet connection here so things are off to a rocky start in my new home. All I have to show for 2 weeks of ‘service’ is a bill for $80. All the paints seem hidden away and I have taken the radical step of ordering new ones. Space is very limited. The apartment is dominated by boxes. I see that I have to rid myself of some books and debris to make the next move easier. I have no illusions that it will be my last move.

I have plenty to present once things get on track including some attractive 1/1200 Renaissance ships from Valiant and Langton. I have found some interesting rules sets and am hoping to do some simple play-throughs. I will also likely expand the painting section (though as far as I can tell no one has read it) and photograph the Ral Partha Renaissance figures and the Archive fantasy figures. In other words, a lot is coming as soon as time presents itself.

General

I’m walking on sunshine

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Made the drive from Texas to Florida in time to rescue the baby from a daycare center that promises to teach her Spanish and basic math skills but apparently offers no guarantee that she will come home in one piece. In just 2 weeks, she received a large scratch breaking the skin along her ankle, bloody scrapes on both big toes, a scraped knee, a scratch on her thigh, and a bruise mark on her arm where it looks like someone grabbed her hard. The baby is just 6 months old and cannot yet crawl. The daycare workers blame the injuries on her rapid movements.

In other words, I am still on hiatus as life is restored to some sort of order.

General

And then we got more rain…

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037
No need to ask, I survived. After being marooned in Dallas and driving back after midnight with the storm to the east facing me down, I abandoned my car in Houston and headed the rental back home. Just as well as the photos of Interstate 45 suggested it would have been a rough ride.

I picked up the car yesterday. There were still puddles of water and wrecked cars but I got there and back. Which is all to say that there is not much else going on with me this past week.

Administrative, General

Then We Got Rain…

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It has been raining now for weeks. The ranches in the area now look like lakes with cattle carefully walking on the few dry areas left. This morning it rained. The lightning and thunder started around 6 just in time to get most people out of bed a little too early on a Monday morning.

Rain is good for gaming. There is not much else to do except watch TV, read a book, or eat large quantities of unhealthy food. Sadly, my gaming is confined to a few half hearted attempts. There really is no room to play and time is as usual very limited.

For me, the prospect of moving looms once again. I spent the weekend inspecting boxes, discarding junk, and preparing things for a trip to the Goodwill. Sadly, the rain has prevented me from taking any more photos since I remain dependent on natural light but I hope to get a little more posted in the next week.

The living room has become a sea of small boxes. The miniatures get moved by me and only me so I have stacked them where I can keep an eye on them. I will find out whether I move or not in the next few days. Moves can be exhilarating but I know this one will be a challenge.

To close what may be the last entry from my old home with a positive note, the website has been up for a year, there have been 7 malicious logon attempts and almost 500 spam comments. It has allowed me to write and in doing so focus on exactly why there is this enormous mass of boxes in the living room. No answers yet but I expect to have them eventually.

Rules

Rally Round the Flag

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From the Battleline game company also responsible for Ship o’ the Line, precursor to the popular boardgame Wooden Ships and Iron Men. Battleline rules tended to be slender and easy to follow. S. Craig Taylor who wrote these clearly played them as well so there is reasonable clarity in the presentation.

The rules use a 1 to 20 figure ratio with 4 infantry figures on a base 2″ x 1″ for 25mm figures. A standard infantry regiment is composed of 5 bases. There is provision for a commanding general but none for command at lower levels.

The rules use a standard Move-Fire-Melee sequence with an additional charge sequence at the very beginning of the turn. Everything is assumed to happen simultaneously though with movement, it is a matter of moving figures before a 5 minute timer sounds. Formations are column, road column, open order, skirmish order, and line.

Rules

Command Decision

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GDW created its be all-end all set of rules loosely patterned after a series of articles in Wargamer’s Digest. Each army’s organization is carefully worked out on a reduced scale even down to the musical bands. Scale seems intended for 1/72 figures but would work with 1/300th.

The emphasis on organization.  The first edition could atomize the organizational structure of a division-sized unit in meticulous detail but later editions dialed this back a bit.  Military bands are great but there are really no rules to accommodate them.

The rules are written for 20mm/15mm though can be adapted to smaller scales.  Ground scale is 1” = 50 yards.   Turns represent 15 minutes.  Vehicles and towed weapons represent 4 – 6 of the same.  Standard stands 3/4” x 3/4”  represent 40 – 60 men  represented by 2 figures while half stands represent 10 – 30 men represented by a single figure.

The rules offer a rich variety of terrain,  command and control rules requiring order writing, command and staff stands,  phases are, in order, command, movement, fire, close fire, morale, and close assault.  Fire is simultaneous as is movement.  Movement can be interrupted by opportunity fire.  There are also advanced rules containing such minutia as engineers, weather, and airborne assault.

Appendix I covers painting (like we need more on the subject) while Appendix II covers campaigns including an example complete with a hex map and 6 individual scenarios for those wishing to leap right in.  The action covers American and German forces in the area around Aachen. There are also ever helpful and interesting designer notes and an equally helpful index.

Two scenario books have also been published, Bastogne for western front enthusiasts and Barbarossa for the eastern front.  The game is still played with current editions my own first and second GDW editions. http://testofbattle.com/drupal-4.7.4/

Conventions

EastCon

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EastCon 1983
This EastCon was held in Glassboro College. Even so, the convention was on a small scale. Nevertheless, the people running it kept things going and there was a lot to do. The program expresses some of the simplicity of the convention. There was none of the organization of Origins. It was still fun.

Of particular interest was the Star Blazers room which showed on more or less continuous basis Japanese anime. This provided my introduction to Mobile Suit Gundam, a remarkable cartoon with surprising depth. Certainly a presentation worth seeing.
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General

April Fool

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Here it is the end of April and the last week seems like the first.  In fairness, I did paint a large group of 15mm figures though a group of 4 appear to have been swiped.  I did finally realize that lining a plastic box with felt does help prevent figures sliding and crashing into each other when they are in storage.  I also found Monty the Monkey though I suspect he will soon be lost again.

I also discovered that there were only 2 Gencon East conventions and I was at both.  I discovered an old rule set called Battle Stations, a rather elaborate set for WWII naval actions, and bought what I suspect will be the last board game I purchase for a long, long time, War in the Ice by SPI.

But beyond that, I find that I am still traveling, still unsettled, and still trying to figure out a way to stay in one place for more than a month.    In the meantime,  I hope to start doing rules replays at last.

Catalog

Christies

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I suppose by the time a figure has reached a stage where it appears in an auction at Christies, play time is over and the figure is now a collector’s item. Too bad and sadly the fate for many a fine figure. Some figures were made to stand inside a jar. They stand stiffly at attention, all their finery on display with carefully hand painted detail. Others are meant for play and so many of these are collector’s pieces for having been ignored for some reason by an indifferent child.

Here you get a sense of the different world of the figure collector. Who would not be charmed by having a Village Idiot or Monty Monkey? And it is these kinds of figures that motivate wargamers. We want to pull them out of the jars and get them moving. Still, the notion of some executive’s suite laden in heavy oak and overstuffed leather chairs with a bright gleaming set of sparkling new Britains figures has a certain charm as if Citizen Kane had been reunited with Rosebud.

Maker

Dream Pod 9

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Dream Pod 9 Mechs
Dream Pod 9 Mechs

Dream Pod 9 appears to be a game company in the mold of Games Workshop providing rulesets with background for a variety of SF and horror themed universes. They also provide miniatures for use with the games. Current games include Heavy Gear, the Jovian Chronicles, Tribe 8, Gear Krieg and CORE Command. They offer space ship and Mecha miniatures all well-crafted and adaptable to other rules.