How To Fill A Table With Toys & Still Want More... And How I Ditched 'Fantasy' Over The Weekend

 After a nightmare 7 days the previous week, last week was a little more normal, so in between various processes, and at 6AM with my first fruit tea of the day, I was able to take all the standard bearers from the newly acquired 28mm Glorious Revolution collection, and smarten them up, fixing them securely to the poles, trimming and lining the edges and making sure the poles were fixed soundly to the hands of the models bearing them.

In the end I have to replace three banners. Two were not of the same standard (no pun intended) as the rest and one had actually been attached originally n an inverted position and, was so well fixed to the pole that major surgery is the only way.

On Saturday morning, having completed the Jacobite cavalry whilst the memsahib partook of some horizontal canine assisted meditation - OK, she was having a lie-in with one of the dogs - I went out to the gaming room in my PJs - Hey, that's how I rock. Deal with it! - and thought I'd see just how lare the two forces were, using the considerable table space I have, as a crude measure.

Given that the armies are organised and based for Beneath The Lily Banners, and therefore on nice tight base widths, I was pretty surprised when it was all laid out:


















And as you can see, there's a fair bit of stuff, and Roger commented that I had quite enough as the table was full. But, that's not the point is it?

You will recall that my plan - following a 2021 comment by Roger, was to 'go deep' rather than wide, which in itself was the reason I totally scrapped my collection and started again, building up first, an ECW collection which I scrapped last year after the  fantasy collection, because the Christmas game of 2022, left me somewhat cold. 

Taking the decision to totally change my focus, I began collecting what I consider the ultimate Fantasy - Sword & Sorcery if you prefer - collection, which if you have followed my rantings and ramblings, you'll know is almost complete and my historical interests are recharged. It's somewhere between 5000 and 6000 pieces.

As an aside, I am no longer referring to it as 'Fantasy; but rather as 'Sword & Sorcery'.

Let's face it, Sword & Sorcery invokes Howard, Tolkien and De Camp, whilst Fantasy just brings to mind pimpled man-children, wearing semen-stained boxer shorts and living in their aged parent's basement, masturbating over the latest Games Workshop releases.

It's a question of style...

Now, I am fully into my historical gaming again, and I am indulging the 1989 self, and getting a decent collection of stuff for the Glorious Revolution together as fast as possible. I don't just want to fill the table, but also have some visual flexibility to allow me to select units which I think will look the best for a given game or be most suited to a scenario. So, although I can indeed fill the table, it's certainly not enough.

That said, I do have a number in mind and it's not the same number as the Sword & Sorcery, because it's a narrower theme whereas the Sword & Sorcery has a lot of possible permutations.

As it stands, I'll be collecting units present at The Boyne and Aughrim because that gives a contemporary base line measurement for force building. Whether I do every unit or not, remains to be seen.

And so, that's where I am with my hobby at present, and I'm very comfortable with it all, which, those who know me well will agree, is not something you read every day.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and upset Richard by informing him I no longer have a 'Fantasy' collection...



TTFN




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