Heresy! Heresy! OOOOOOH PRETTY LEAD DOLLIES!

 Goodness me, but it's been almost two weeks since I checked in here. In my defence, I have been exceedingly busy with work, but I've been actively arranging my next project, which, commits my funds for the rest of the year, until I go into my Winter lockdown on October 31st.

As some of you know, I have a cut off date every year, after which I don't spend a penny on gaming until January 2nd. This allows me to focus on the festive period on a hard cash basis. It works and means that I generally begin the gaming year with a healthy war chest. I've done this for a decade ana half now and it's a proven method.

Anyway, as I previously mentioned, I have around 1200 28mm Wars Of The Roses with the painter, and last week, he returned the Burgundian and Irish mercenaries, along with the artillery crews. I decided to paint the guns themselves and do the basing as usual. Last Sunday, I managed to get the guns done and based:

Now, I am waiting for the Lancastrian half, and the W.I.P shot I received the other day was very encouraging indeed:

This will be my basing project for the Autumn, with the assistance of the Memsahib, who can crack through hundreds of bases with the sand and paint at a speed which is hard to comprehend. My brother from another manufacturer, Roger has found his youngest son is something of a maestro basing machine, and so he has a similar production line at his disposal.

I am always amazed at the Memsahib's skill sets. By day she is a pretty senior grade civil servant, so you'd think she'd not want to do much at weekends, but you'd be wrong.

She finds time to paint up some spiffing terrain using alkyds - which she only picked up in the last three months - and every weekend she knocks a couple of buildings out, as well as painting her own enormous ECW army.

In the last fortnight, she's completed a fair few bits, being a mix of Grand Manner and Perry models:

 

 

The river section is from Last Valley, and is cut to fit to the footprint of the bridge.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was planning a Marlburian collection, but on deep and considered reflection, I could see it becoming something of an endless money pit to make it look right on the table. Added to this, I realised that I'd actually bought quite a few American buildings when I went on the Grand Maner spree in January.

So, what to do?

Well, I fell for the old gamer trap of finding a copy of Gettysburg on the Memsahib's shelves as I dropped into her home office with a cuppa. I did my duty and liberated it, reasoning that it'd give me something to listen to as I worked.

And you know where this is going...

I have a rule now, which is that if something is not going to be used, it is moved on. I really, really don't want piles of stuff doing nothing. Contrary to the mindset of many gamers I know, having more figures, books etc doesn't make you a more dedicated gamer. It makes you a pack rat... A complete waste of money and space. Better surely to recycle into something you can use?

Well, I parlayed a few books and the Marlburians into an eye-popping number of the Perry Miniatures ACW 'Battle In A Box' sets, and the obligatory pile of Don Troiani books (just for recreational purposes, as the T.V evangelists say when caught in a brothel or porn shop).

In my defense, the Memsahib has about a division per side of Perrys already awaiting painting, so I claim that she has 'put the fluence on me'.

Anyway, as if this was not enough, I then got an email from Roger, pointing me to a painted collection on social media, priced very competitively and also being Perry models. Roger made his disapproval at my ACW fetish, very clear, he having passed through this rite of passage 3 decades back. He did murmur something about 15mm, but I put this down to an unsteadiness of mind caused by my own decision. It was OK, but he really needs to remember that he has enough boxes of Napoleonics to use as a base for a bed, so the moral high ground could be seen as being susceptible to landslides...

I had already missed out on the collection, but by one of those timely turns of fate, I was actually able to acquire them yesterday.

And so, my plan is to effectively cal time on the 2022 project season as I am going to have added over 2500 painted models when everything is done. My LGS - the 'F' part is often not apropriate, so I leave it off - sold me a carrier bag full of Perry plastic bases last week, for a fiver, so the ACW will all be on those, in 4 figure infantry groups:

The picture doesn't really convey just how many sprues there are, trust me.

And so, I now have to look at the units to be represented. In recent years I have deliberately taken the approach that prioritises the most visually attractive units in a given period. I've been down the road of 'this army on this day at this time' and I have come out the other side. 

Let's pause a moment whilst the 'I'm A Serious Historian' brigade recover themselves after fainting... Are we al upright again? Good, good...

Let's not forget that we are playing with little plastic or metal dollies, dressing it all up in pseudo intellectual posturing to make us look serious and earnest. If this was the case, this hobby would have died out years ago.

Now don't get me wrong, because I am a martinet for uniform details, but at the end of the day, twenty units of whatever nation are just that. They are elaborate game counters representing a string of numbers and calculations. I think that whatever units depicted should be as accurate as you feel comfortable with, but unless you are going to be representing a given formation at a certain date, ad nauseum, the specific units really, truly don't matter.

OK, pass out the smelling salts and brandy in the ivory towers... 

Look, in the early 90s you saw the appearance of rules such as Volley and Bayonet which did not rely on specific unit sizes. Each large base contained as many or as few models as you wished, representing usually a brigade. The unit you depicted was your business, and I recall that there were some lovely dynamic vignettes produced usually depicting one of the more photogenic units in a given formation, be it flags or uniforms. The base was a game counter... Over the years this has become 'normal'. 

So, I take a similar approach with my armies now. Where possible I select eye catching regiments with which to fill my shelves, invoking 'Rule 1' - My money, my figures, my choice (so fuck off) - with the provisio that those units are depicted as accurately as practicable. So, they didn't take to the field in history, with another unit on the shelf. Deal with it... That game you played last week to 1200 points at the club, never took place in history. What may I fucking ask, is the difference?

When I host a game, I want my guests and friends to have a great time with bright and well presented table and figures. I'll populate the table with striking figures which make the hearts of any gamer beat a little faster. I think most of us saw a game in our early days which we may not have known much about, but which the arrayed models seemed to leap out to us crying out 'Look at us - WE are your future!'

I am not against those who need the security blanket of a particular O.O.B to justify their second childhood, but for me, the 'glow' from a table of brightly dressed toy soldiers is where I am at. 

I also realised that unconciously, my three recent collections have all been civil wars. This has not been a deliberate decision, but there must be something in my make up which makes me genetically suscepitble to divided nations, in the same way that Roger is drawn to lace and funny hats. I wonder how many of us, if we looked at our collections would see thmes which we were not consciously aware of previously.

I was chatting with the Memsahib yesterday as we took a little trip out to a great bookshop and equaly good cafe just outside Buxton at Brierlow Bar, with a meandering trip home through the Peak District and down the Rivelin Valley. I remarked with all sincerity that I am actually not hankering to indulge in many if any more periods. I have found a 'sweet spot' so to speak, with my hobby.

I have an excellent selection of terrain, and more painted or W.I.P figures than I have ever owned in over 40 years of gaming, as well as a dedicated building to mess around in. It's very satisfying. I never actually thought or indeed believed I could say this, but I just don't have the urge to 'prove myself' anymore. Don't think however that I losing my enthusiasm, because that is certainly not the case.

I will probably add to the ACW collection on a unit or so a month basis, and I'll certainly ad feature pieces and vignettes to my colections, as well as a few more terrain pices, but, with the exception of fulfilling a desire to buy around 100 17th century figures to play 'One Upon A Time In The West Country', I've got enough variety.

Having seen the Crucible Crush range of 17th Century colonial settlers in a magazine last weekend, I think that this is how I will go with the skirmish project as it allows me to use Pete Berry's excellent rules - of which I am a great and long time fan - in a slightly different yet authentic way, along with a mix of terrain from my ECW and American collections. I may buy the models this year, but they are currently my only planned painting work for 2023.

Well, that was a long blog, but I hope that I have entertained, outraged and engaged you along the way. Now, I am off to browse those Don Troiani Books, to help me relax after spending two hours at the keyboard...

TTFN