Fairfax, Trolls, & RUSH... With A Touch Of Futuristic Sporting Action

2021, is shaping up to be as busy as the last 11 years of painting, which is of course, good. But it does mean I have less time for blogging and that kind of thing - you know, the enjoyable bits of life.

So, as I have just finishe for the day, somewhat earlier than the expected 10 hours, I'm grabbing some time for selfish pursuits...

You'll recall that I had sold my Noch terrain boards? Well, I have ordered some boards from Last Valley (which should be done in a few days) and taken delivery of a large box of roads, brooks, marshes, copses and an orchard from the same, ordered a load of hedges from The Tree Fellahs, and my wife is working on 4 walled fields. Of course I have a large box of pine trees and a splendid ready-to-play walled farm from eM4 which gives me a nice set of scenic options for the ECW. Once we get backto some semblance of convention normality, I'll add a few more pices from .V and I thinkI'll double the number of hedges too.

Over the last couple of weekends, I've painted a Robinet with crew and limber for my ECW as well as another comand stand:

 

This means that I just have two more command groups to go before the project is finished, the final total being:

9 x Command stands

9 x 36 of foot

12 x 10 of horse

3 x 12 of mounted dragoons

3 x 12 of dismounted dragoons

3 horse holder stands

8 artillery pieces

1 x artillery train guard unit

3 wagons

At some stage I'll add to it, but it's a bloody large force when deployed, so I am in no rush to add to it just yet.

I've just been informed that my caster is unwell, which means that Roger and I have to wait a bit longer for our Mongols, and a few client orders are on hold for the moment. Frustrating but it can't be helped.

I've started planning the forces for a Gempei War  era Japanese collection, and settled at 200 cavalry, 200 foot Samurai, 200 retainers and 80 or so Shoei. These will be sent off to the same chap who painted most of my ECW, later this year. I'm trying to be careful with my money this year rather than using my credit card to speed things up. I'm being somewhat restrained for a change.

I've started reading a few books on the period however, and the effectivenes of the Japanese longbow and the restriction placed upon it by the armour design of the Samurai, has me thinking about replicating them on the table. It makes the Japanese play a whole different way, when you consider an effective bow range of 20-30 metres and the limitations of firing mounted, which due to armour and bow designs meant that there was really only a 45 degree arc of fire to the left hand side, when firing from horseback.

Compare this with the flexibility and power of Mongol horse archers and a game set during the Mongol invasion of Japan, could be a lot of fun and a challenge.

I also started reading Tunnels & Trolls, which left me wondering why I was such a martinet as a youth. I swapped a few D&D bits for this lot:

What appear at first glance to be way to simplistic a set of rules, actually turns out to be a pretty slick and deceptively elegant rules set. For the experienced gamer, the straightforward mechanisms are there to take care of the situations which other rules need long winded mechanisms to simulate. The 'Luck' roll, can simply be used for so many things from straightforward 'lucky breaks' to deciding if a Rogue can spot and disarm a trap. , or indeed anything else that a character way conceivably wish to do. The GM can adjust the roll required to reflect any difficulties and away you go!

Needless to say I'm rather enjoying it at the same time as berating myself for my stubborn sniffiness all these decades.

Now, I listen to audiobooks pretty much every day as I work, and if not those, then Prog Rock albums, so imagine my joy to find that the second volume of the story of Canadian legends, RUSH was available this morning via audible.

It's a really in depth book, with a lot of interviews - all quite candid - and perspectives on the music and creative processes of the band. I'll give it a solid 9.5 out of 10. The first volume 'Anthem' was equally good, so if you are a fan of RUSH or prog rock in general, listen to it or read it a.s.a.p.

And now in closing, I am searching for the Q.T Miniatures/Museum Miniature Street Football rules, if anyone has one. I'll pay £10 plus shipping for a set if anyone has one that they no  longer need:

And that's it for now. I hope you are all staying safe and as well as can be expected...

TTFN