There is almost nothing at all war gaming related to report. However, I stumbled on some tangentially related artifacts.
On the flight in, we flew over a vast collection of what appear to be Quonset huts set into dirt. My Uber driver told me they are WWII-era ammunition storage bunkers. Who am I to doubt him?
There was this Flying Tigers plaque at the "airport" (it has just one gate and two United Express flights between Pueblo and Denver daily):
And in downtown I walked by the Medal of Honor memorial everyday on my way to the conference and back to the hotel:
I did watch the Russian mini-series, Enemy Lines, in my hotel room each night via Amazon Prime. It's another commando-raid based series, with the usual gaming inspiration and romantic subplots.
Also, during the conference, in the margins of my notebook, I scribbled some ideas for a minimalist 2d6 RPG for cosmic horror / Call of Cthulhu type adventures (I read Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow while I was there). With 5 hours to spare at the Denver airport on Friday awaiting my flight home, I purchased and read Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan, which is the 2nd Earthsea novel (highly recommend for inspiration for fantasy gaming of the not-swords-but-plenty-of-sorcery type).
The latter has me itching to get back to The Library Book "campaign" sooner rather than later - I really wanted to paint up some suitable miniatures to add some variety to the enemy forces, but I may just go with what I have and not worry about it.
Since I've been home, I've turned my attention to edits for G Company and evaluating my miniatures collection with an eye towards deciding if it might be better to part with some of the projects that haven't had any activity in 5 or more years. This has been inspired in part by George Arnold's article in the latest issue of Lone Warrior (#208).
Excellent trip. Look forward to the Cthulhu skirmish rules.
ReplyDeleteIt also occurred to me recently how applicable your Company fire rules are for Vietnam scenarios...more stuff on the list lol
Thanks for the comment Duc de Gobin! Now that you mention it, I suspect with but little modification (weapon ranges most notably) you could use them for infantry battles in Vietnam. I'd probably want to add some way to account for air cavalry, but that's because I just watched Apocalypse Now recently.
DeleteFascinating photos and account of your trip.
ReplyDeleteThank you tradgardmastare! Despite being a work-related trip, it was a nice break from the routine.
DeleteOh yeah, I've put plenty of thought into project downsizing - mostly at my Commission & Regiment blog here:
ReplyDeletehttp://ecw40mmproject.blogspot.com/
I'd say that the only reason to keep a project that hasn't been touched in 5 years is if it has been nicely painted or the sculpts are hard to re-acquire. If so, then the question would be to get it back on the schedule occasionally somehow.
The Earthsea books are great - much more dignity than a lot of other stuff out there.
I checked out your post - you've got me thinking about what I want to accomplish with the remainder of 2019, let alone downsizing. Food for thought, that!
DeleteGood point about the sculpt availability - I certainly don't want to party with something I can't replace should I have a change of heart.
Cheers!
- John
Btw, not to make more work for you, but...
ReplyDeleteIt'd be cool if you could rate your favorite WWII gaming inspiration films and series, and also note how you watched them [prime, library loan DVD, etc]. A master post that you update periodically could be permanantly set on the side bar, and easy reference for your many fans.
That's an interesting idea.
DeleteI do watch probably more than my fair share of movies and series, at least in the last few years. I'll have to give it some thought - it's not really that much work, although I feel like there should be some kind of criteria for ranking or at least, for whether or not a particular movie / series gets listed.