Podcasts, Fantasy Figures & Views of Wales

 Well, as is the way these past 43 years, I was once again bound by dark magic to make a tit of myself in public for the hobby I love, on the Yarkshire Gamer podcast.

To be fair I had fun, but that's not the point, is it?

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-45-mark-hides-real-life/

In other news, the fantasy project is roaring down the track and has taken hold of me in a way which even I find a little unsettling. 

I have always been equally a fantasy and historical gamer as well as an itinerant role player, but something is in the air I fear. Speaking to the Grognards with whom I have gamed down the years, they have literally out of nowhere got the itch for some 'proper' fantasy gaming.

Not for them this points-based modern pap, but rather BIG armies, comprised of multiple races, battling it out on good looking terrain. This has happened before, we all get an individual itch, which on being mentioned to the rest of the mob, appears to be some kind of collective madness.

And it's great.

The opportunity to flex the creative gaming muscles is always so. We are a pretty talented if set in our ways bunch, so it's always going to be a truly enjoyable adventure, which will make us all feel like teenagers again.

After the Christmas debacle, I am actually feeling pretty fucked off with historical gaming and some of the half-hearted whiners that it seems to cultivate like fireweed at the periphery. Maybe I am just so deep into the hobby that I just gravitate to those for whom it is an equally existential need, and I am being unfair to those for whom it's merely an interesting diversion from the rat race. 

Eaither way, I find it stifling at present and want little to do with it. 

I want to be surrounded by likeminded people who put their fun before their image. I learned years ago, that the higher you go in life, the less you are yourself - little tip.

Never forget your past or roots, no matter how painful, because that is you, whether you like it or not. We all end up in a box at the end of the day, and burning bridges smell the same as burning coffins, let me tell you.

The Memsahib is not a happy bunny at the moment as the multi-focal pneumonia has returned and she has been grounded. This is not her way... She is a quite senior civil servant and is very driven. Sitting on her arse is not something she enjoys, so she's been doubly hacked off at spending around 16 hours per day in bed. Thanks to those of you who have dropped me a line to wish her a full recovery, even if it won't be a speedy one.

However, she has decided that she is getting into the fantasy craze with the cool kids, and so, flush with funds from selling a lot of her ECW collection and indeed her ACW, she has started collecting Undead troops at an alarming rate. I think she has acquired 300+ in the last week alone. 

The Memsahib is the quintessential Necromancer Queen of the games table. I like a large variety of troops, but she is very much one for raising armies of all races, post mortem. Accordingly, I have bought very few Undead as she'll end up with hundreds and hundreds in short order.

So far my own collection stands at:

100 Copplestone Halflings

64 Essex Gnomes

24 Essex Centaurs

72 Chronicle Kobolds (I've never seen so many)

220 Essex Goblins (they drive Landrovers and do blags art weekends in the Smoke)

120 Oathmark Dwarves

124 Ragnarok Dark Dwarves

48 Ragnarok Undead (too nice to resist, despite the Memsahib's necromantic japery)

666 Chronicle/Grenadier Orcs & Goblins

20 Chronicle Orc Warg Riders

9 Chronicle Orc bolt throwers

24 Essex Knights Of Evil

124 Ral Partha Elves

628 Essex Humans

400 Dixon Bakemono to be used as Hobgoblins

30 Dixon Oni to be used as Ogres

24 Satanic Panic Dwarf Horsemen

54 Ral Partha Wolf Riders

At present, I plan to add 54 more Chronicle Goblins and about 80 RGD Beastmen so the total pieces will be just over 3000 for the 2023 campaign season. Not a bad start. And that's just me... Oh, there are also chariots and large creatures to add into the mix. Oh, and in 2024 there will be over 840 Dixon Samurai arriving from the painter, having been put back by six months, which, if used for fantasy gaming (and why the hell not?) will give me almost 4000 fantasy toys to play with. Self reliance is a good thing as the last few months have proven.

The collected numbers are going to be way more than we can ever fit on a table in one go, but, as a one time gaming buddy said, go for depth as well as width and really focus on a period. Good advice.

So, today, I'm paying my painter for the last 800 models for the campaign season, after spoending yesterday removing the bases from 488 models and sticking them to new MDF homes.  

Yesterday morning, with the aid of the Memsahib before she crawled back to bed, I also got the backdrop for the gaming table fitted.

It was an O Gauge Premium Grade backdrop from Model Masters, printed on self adhesive vinyl and cost £28 for two sections, each just shy of 5 feet and both showing differing views of the same landscape. I used the more verdant side of the Llanberis set, and very nice it looks. It just needs the frame screwing to the wall permanently, but you can get an idea of how it looks:

Given that the tower is 2 feet high, you can see just how large this backdrop is. You can find them here:

https://modelmasters.co.uk/collections/art-printers-id-backscenes

Well, if you will excuse me, I need to go and spray some figures for the Memsahib...

TTFN