Sir Ian Livingstone writes:   'I'm delighted to share with you the cover for DICE MEN. For the main image, we commissioned Iain McCaig to re-imagine his iconic illustration for an early Games Workshop carrier bag and his Games Workshop logo which we immediately adopted as the official Games Workshop logo, an evolved version of which is still in use today some 40 years later.  The book design is by Mark Ecob (@marcobtweets) who you might be interested to know also designed the Fighting Fantasy logo for us which was used until 2017.  We are very aware that DICE MEN is considerably late being published, now confirmed by Unbound for publication in September 2022.  The delay has been caused by a combination of re-writes, extra research, additional content, supply chain problems, the pandemic and more. We can only apologise and hope that the wait will be more than worth the while.  Thanks,  Ian'      

 Another week has passed, with ups and downs and a 50 hour working week. We've been living in a bomb site for 5 days as our builders finished the restrucruring of the garden to the side of the games room to creat a low maintenance area for our 5 terriers, with a selection of fir trees in halved whisky barrels being added to add a little visual interest (yes, there will be lights in them once they get established. We also had to have the conservatory re-tiled thanks to the original tiling which was installed only two years ago by our old builders who got a little lax with their work ethic. In the end it has meant the loss of 4 customers for them, but on the upside we've got a second chance to get things as we want them, in our autumn years. But as you may imagine, it's made life stressful but not unbearable. What was unbearable however was what I received when I spent a fairly substantial sum on a lovely Eldar army for WH40K, last weekend... It was a beautifully painted army...

 Well, it seems that Hammerhead is going ahead as planned, including a tabletop sale. https://www.hammerheadshow.co.uk/ You may wonder why I am so 'pro 2nd hand'. It's quite simple, I love bring and buys. I ran one at a well known northern show for a couple of decades, and I can tell you that for the sellers they generate a LOT of money, most of which goes back into the pockets of the traders at a show. This may not equate to the same 'cash in pocket' effect for organisers, but it does increase the chances of traders making return bookings the folowing year. In the 43 years I've gamed, there have always been bring and buys, and they have always been busy places. Overcrowding has been due in some cases to the fact that the organisers use a crappy little room. A well run second hand area will flow nicely. The main thing is to stop dealers from hogging the space rather than selling them a trade stand as is right and proper.  Show organisers KNOW who the dealers are...

      It's 2022, and shows are going ahead. With this in mind, I was planning the list of selected shows I'd like to visit this year, and or course, Vapnartak was high on the list. So, I dropped the organisers a line to enquire about the tabletop sale area, which is a place that I can drop a grand on a good day and come home with new and interesting (but most importantly, table-ready) goodies to sit in a box or upon a shelf. The response was thus: " Covid has prevented us from doing it. It's impossible to do socially distanced. The show is on. It's just the tabletop sale and competition games that have had to slip this time. Plenty of traders are booked in and we have tinkered with the layout to help with crowding (we hope)" Now, call me harsh if you will, but the competitions alons will free up space, so surely a tabletop sale, which genrates income for the traders and the sellers is possible. OK, You could put it closer to the doors upstairs I am sure, an...

 Almost 35 years ago, I somewhat feverishly bought the first edition of Warhammer 40,000 and the next day I was down at the Escafeld Kreigsspielers club, trying it out. In terms of structure it was a Laserburn On Steroids feeling as you had no army lists and despite the rather gauche 'Space Orcs', it was a fun game. However, like many things this was a short term association, thanks mostly to the fact that I didn't really enjoy the EK club and secondly, at the time I was really throwing myself into it the following Summer, as the range of figures increased and White Dwarf propaganda machine gave more and more rules to try out, my relationship was spiralling, nay plummeting to a really messy end, which would see me become a recluse for almost a year, only leaving my bedsit in the small hours of the morning, flitting wraithlike around the streets. I was totally adrift from my best friends and was close to 'taking care of things'. So, gaming was on the back burner. Any...

 Wow, but was that a busy week... Oddly, today has been busy on the domestic front with the Memsahib having her 4th Covid shot at 8AM, breakfast, banking, the weekly shop, readying the garden for the builder and landscaper  and then,  having to power wash the entire paved area due to a misguided Scottish Terrier leaving a few hundred compost paw prints all over it. All in -1 celsius temperatures. Tomorrow, I intend to sit at a computer and just look at figure manufacturers all day and decide what I want to get painted this year with the allocated budget. I also need to get in contact with Roger whom I have really only bandied 'one liners' with this week as the days have been long and I'd hate him to think I was in some way upset with him. On the matter of figures, I have several idea, but I really need to hone them down do that I get every penny's worth of play value from them. None of those 'play it once and shelve it' periods, although I do fancy a skirmish se...

 It's been a really busy week in my studio, so I've been thinking more than doing as it were. I did receive the first 4 regiments of Covenanter infantry from the painter, and they are now stuck down and glossed, waiting for a delivery of matt varnish, which has been on backorder for 3 months. So far I've got 10 units of horse and 4 of foot along with 9 artillery pieces. Still to come are 8 more foot regiments and 2 units of mounted and dismounted dragoons. Then it's a quick basing job, pop the flags on (which have been ready to roll for about 5 months or so) and I can start to drive the godless Royalist scum from my lands. Here are a couple a of pics:  The cavalry consists of 2 regiments of 'Buffs' with carbines, 4 with sword and then 4 units of lancers. They are 9 figure units representing about 200 men each. The infantry will be 4 brigades of 3 regiments representing units of around 700 men. 8 units will be in the traditional Hodden grey, whilst three will be ...

 Well, as I squander the last few hours before my return to work after almost a month of loafing around and not going anywhere near a painting desk, I've been making a few more purchases from Grand Manner: Some eye watering prices, but these are ,odels I have always loved, and which are really iconic pieces. I also reconnected with my love of the Epic Space Marine system, from the early 90s. Truth be told, I'd been watching a large collection on a certain e-commerce site, and last night as I quaffed a couple of bottles of champagne, and watched the classic movie 'Uncle Buck' I thought 'What the hell...' and made a stupidly low offer on that very item. And won, b'God! So I'm really pleased with that, as you may imagine. Well, time passes and so, I really need to open the wine, have something to eat, and settle into the usual Monday routine of a few episodes of M*A*S*H. TTFN

 Happy New Year to you all, Well, as I hit the 22nd day of my Christmas break, and with two days left, I've hit the ground running with regards to my gaming for 2022. Grand Manner announced a few days ago that they were having a limited 'raw resin' sale, whereby you can buy unpainted terrain at what are eye watering yet reasonable prices. I blew over £700, but got some really nice and very useful models: My wife is rather excited about painting it all, as she did all of the GM terrain that was used for the early 2000s Discovery show,  'Model Town' and is a real fan of Grand Manner. The Norman fort was just too much resist, despite the fact that I atually don't own any suitable models since the 1999 'Byzantine Incident' of which I shall never speak. So, the plan for the year ahead is to commission Normans and something different to the usual Anglo Saxon army. I am looking at 700 pieces or so, as that will allow two nicely sized armies to be fielded. I saw...