October Review

 

Role Playing 

For our Family Fall Festival this year, I did end up running a game after all - the player who had wanted to run a game just didn't have time to flesh out their idea. With two days to prepare, I went into research overdrive like I was writing a final paper, and like those days of yore, got it done at the last minute. 

For a visual element, with no time to make any bespoke terrain, I settled on atmosphere and re-used the LED candles and table cloth/runner, and autumnal wreath from last year, but replaced my DIY Shub-niggurath statue with a skull that was part of my son's Halloween costume last year. 

The setup: Every 66 years on the night of the Harvest Moon, a dark, crooked house appears on a hillside overlooking the small village of Hallowfeld. It disappears at sunrise. Of course, it is rumored that those who enter are never seen again.

The hook: This year is, according to a drunk merchant, the 66th year since the last appearance, and so the party decides to journey to Hallowfeld just to see it and partake in the Harvest Festival there. At the village tavern, while sitting around the fire and enjoying ghost stories, and old man comes in and tells them that he went in the house as a boy and managed to escape, but he left something behind - he doesn't know what, just that he needs it back, and he begs them for help.

It went pretty well ending with the party finding the lost thing (part of the man's soul), defeating the boss monster (a shadow, which should have been tough for a level 1 and 2 party, but between magic missile spells and the paladin's ability to have any one weapon be treated as magic once a day, it lasted one round), stealing the house's "battery", leaping from the porch as the house collapsed while throwing the unstable battery into the distance - where i took out a chunk of countryside.

We didn't have time to do administrative tasks after, but at least one PC leveled up (they had been trailing the others, having missed a few sessions). 

There are two sessions scheduled for November!

Wargaming

For reasons, I decided to break out my Southern Front WWI collection.

The scenario is, hopefully, recognizable - although I suspect the bridge would have an Italian name in this case - let us call it Esplodere Bridge.

Rules were G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (modified for 8-figure infantry/4-figure cavalry units. MGs counted as having 5 crew members) with some Contemptible Little Armies and In Good Company thrown in.

The game area is 36" x 24". Movement and shooting ranges were cut in half. Movement was variable as per CLA. Victory would go to the side that controlled the bridge after 10 turns (which would mean having units on the other side of the bridge for my purposes and enough of a force to be able to hold the bridge)

The Italians have one infantry unit, one MG, and one cavalry unit. The Austrians have two infantry units (1 figure with an LMG) and an MG. 

Italian infantry storm the bridge while an Austrian unit struggles to ford the river.

Perhaps a turn later, the Italians are nearly across (at the expense of shooting, since in GASLIGHT, it's move or shoot). Meanwhile the Austrians continue to struggle crossing the river, but their other unit and MG prepare to slaughter the Italians on the bridge.

 < REEL MISSING > 

(I was all wrapped up in playing)

The Italian force is in ruins at the end of turn 10. Really at the end of turn 9, but i thought, what the heck, let's keep playing. The Italians are on the bridge but even with their MG intact, they have little to no chance in my opinion.Victory to Austria-Hungary

Miniatures

No paint was applied to anything this month - although I did re-base my WWI Southern Front collection to individual bases (cut from mat board) again - because rebasing is my hobby and toy soldiers are just an excuse to do it! 

 

Those new bases still need paint, as visible above.

I did however, pack away about half of my figure collection to see if I even want to keep them or if they can be sent to good homes. I tend to make no decision when presented with many options - hello Kanopy watch list, I'm looking at you - and so I usually end up not playing anything, even when I have time.

I am a huge fan of books and podcasts about decluttering (i like to *think* about doing it at least), but I really glomed on to "the container concept" from "A Slob Comes Clean". Essentially, she stresses that the purpose of a container is to limit things, not to store them, but to provide boundaries to how much you keep. 

"You can keep anything you want, but you can't keep everything" (more or less a direct quote)

This idea sings to me. As well as the one about designating a day of the week as laundry day instead of waiting until you're out of socks or whatever. I digress.

Anyway, I designated a single 6-bin (they are like 14" x 14" x 3" - for scrapbookers but handy for 54mm and 28mm/32mm figures /- especially those with banners and such - too) organizer for my wargaming figures and that's it. (I have 12 bins worth, hence half my collection will be kept out).

That means, I can have 6 collections at 1 bin each, or 1 that fills all 6 or any combination that adds to 6 bins. That's it. (OK OK, i did cheat by putting a bunch on display a bit ago - playing games isn't the only way to appreciate toy soldiers after all)  

What remains? 

1. 54mm WWI Southern Front - it came down to WWI vs Colonial England/French Foreign Legion and both collections give a similar kind of game - lancers, infantry, machine guns. Only the costumes change and that's not enough reason)
2. 1/35 WWI Horror - I mean, it's 8 figures, plus monsters, most of which serve for RPGs as well.
3. 54mm-ish North Pole '42 - Weird World War II. Germans and  robotic tin soldiers commanded by a greedy industrialist are the bad guys.
4. 32mm Grim Dark Sci Fi - it's a collection that my son expresses even a little interest in,so it of course stays. Plus, I love the figures. It also scratches the same itch as 1:1 WWII skirmish games, with the advantage that I can play with others locally when the mood strikes.
5. 28/32mm Fantasy - I'm choosing to focus on two factions (inspired by Norm over at Battlefields and Warriors): lizard folk and orcs. Any other factions - and even some of the orcs - are borrowed from my RPG figure collection. I can also include Blitz Bowl here, but that's really a board game.

So, what in fact got moved to "storage":

• 54mm Colonial
• 54mm Fantasy,
• Brick WWII
• 1/72 WWII.
• 54mm AWI (well, a handful of militia from last Christmas's game) 

In some cases, storage means unceremoniously tossed into a big jumble, while in some cases, it means the current bin is just earmarked to go into a closet (which has to be cleared first).

I feel greatly relieved by this situation already and I've already played a few wargames in November!

Of course, once all this was decided upon, I realized my orcs needed cavalry - and after watching eBay for a bit, I scored a great deal on 7 painted boar boyz and they are on their way. So an October figure purchase, with a November arrival.

If I don't post again before then, see you in a month!