A Galimaufry Of Things, Including Monmouth, Big Robots, & The Blues

Lordy, it's been a while since I posted, but Roger has been prodding me, and thus I feel it's time to put arthritic and painful hands to the keyboard...

I have been doing savagely long days (but of course that means that the coffers are filling and bills are being paid, and so that's not a complaint, just a statement) which is the main reason I've not been blogging.

Firstly, I'd like to speak of giant robots and the like...

Back in the 80s, a mutual friend of both I and the aforementioned Roger one Darren (now Professor) Ashmore chanced upon the Macross model kits based on the Japanese anime series. Now back in the mid 80s these were not well known as they are today, and the models were 'something else, man'.

We bought them, we built them, we bought more and more, and soon wrote a set of rudimentary rules which often saw games being played on 12 x4 boards at Sheffield Wargames society... These were often 1/72 scale models so you can imaging just how striking these games could look.

The late Pete Armstrong (aka: Greblord) was our mentor on all things anime and introduced us to some of the really obscure stuff and we were hooked in a BIG way.

However, there are tales in the Sheffield area of how an unnamed group of wayward youths, bored on a damp Saturday afternoon, when they were not indulging in their normal 5 days per week of gaming, took a number of well painted and now pretty damned valuable Macross kits to a field together with some crow scaring pyrotechnics and blew them to kingdom come... I can neither confirm nor deny the identity, but Pete Armstrong would have given us a damned good hiding if we'd been stupid enough to 'fess up'.

Anyway, a few years later came Battletech and then the GW Adeptus Titanicus game came out. We played both in our assorted gaming groups, but it was A.T which had the big robots we all craved - even if they were a third of the size of the Macross models.

Anyway, things have a tendency to come around again and Roger dropped me a line earlier this week to say he was interested in the latest version of Adeptus Titanicus, and I reprimanded him for his foolishness and spendthrift way, in fact I may have mocked and berated my old chum somewhat, because then, when I was offered a set having looked in more detail and decided that the price I was being offered it for was actually quite reasonable, Roger was a little surly with me.

Rightly so...

Anyway, I have the eye wateringly priced Grand Master Edition on the way and I trust that Roger will also acquire one so that my shaming might come to an end.

It looks pretty good, being a combination of the earlier and later mechanics and does seem to give a feel that these behemoths (and they really are large models at about 1.3 mm to the foot) are the gods of the battlefield whilst everything else is cannon fodder or at best expendable.

So, please accept my apologies Roger - I was a foolish old man.

Roger is normally a historical gamer but he does have a few little perversions such as Cthulhu, Twilight 2000 and big robots knocking the shit out of each other, and we have discussed various systems now and again, but none seem to convey the sheer size of the combatants in quite the same way as the A.T game.

I'll no doubt blog about it more when I've had a chance to play a few games, but You Tube videos seem to look rather favourably on it, and so my expectations are high.

In other news, I have this week placed an order for the forces at Sedgemoor in 28mm working on a figure/man of 1:20 and actually using full establishment strengths for the Royalist units to allow them to be used in other projects. They are 28 man units with Rebel units being 36 and the cavalry being represented in terms of troops and squadrons.

I have bought a good number of books, including the excellent titles by Chris Scott and John Tincey and the latest Helion & Co title on the army of James II.

As per my 'Stop At 50' directive the painting of all but 6 artillery pieces and the staff officers has been outsourced and so the total cost of the project has come in at around £2000.00, bringing my year's gaming to a nice neat close.

I am hoping that my 28mm ECW will be with me in the next couple of weeks, so that I can begin the basing as winter wends it's way towards us.

So, I have a lot of nice projects in the pipeline but I just cannot seem to shake a pretty hard bout of depression which has cropped up out of nowhere. I can't pin the cause down, but I have been given to thoughts of old friends living and passed on, the loss of my Mum, and how perhaps instead of once telling her, my friends are my family' and 'You ca choose your friends but not your family' I could have been a little less vile a human being because, whilst many of my friends are truly amazing people whom I am proud to be acquainted with, one or two down the years, have turned out to complete c**ts, not worth my time or indeed recognition by name. Sorry, but that's the kind of dark mood I have been in recently.

It has however made me more intent on doing things my way, when I want. I have less years ahead of me than behind me now, so I am not relying on others to share projects with me. I am happy to have my truly genuine friends, such as Roger work with me, but when I decide I am pursuing a project it will not be reliant on others. That sounds pretty harsh, but what I mean is, that if I am incapable of putting together a game, with both sides painted at my own expense and effort, it's unlikely that I'll bother with it. I am very happy for others to be involved and their input can only enhance the experience, but were they to not bother, I could say to the, 'Want a game of (insert period) this weekend?' and they could turn up, safe in the knowledge that I could furnish a table with everything that was needed.

Equally, I want to be connected with interesting and humorous people who can converse about food, drink, art, music and the like, as well as gaming. I need mental stimulation and have decided that I'll not waste my time, short as it is.

I'll also be damned if I allow depression to stagnate my mood. No sir, I'll get my act together and damned well turn it into a searing tsunami of creativity. Those who wish to join me can do so, but those who have no interest may as well stand down, because I am focussed on living my life.

In closing, I have no more news on the impending Screaming Mob / Satanic Panic Miniatures fantasy ranges at this time other than Martin Buck is beavering away on all three ranges as we speak. Rest assured that as soon as I have news, you'll read it here first.

TTFN

Comments

  1. It’s good to see you post again, I may not always leave a comment, but I always read them. I’d love to see you paint the Titans from AT - it’s on my list of things to buy, but not for a few months.

    I’ve always collected two side for any project which is partly due to the fact that I like balance and partly that I’m anti-social.

    Ultimately, you can’t please everybody so you have to please yourself.

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