WTF is 'Fantastorical'™ ?

Well, I am a week into my Christmas holiday and frankly, I am knackered.

But I'm knackered in a good way. My studio is all cleaned down and ready for my return in early January for the most part.

I have been reflecting at some depth on the whole 'If you play fantasy, you are not a proper gamer' chain of thought and indeed my friend's suggestion that I simply go with fantasy.

Well, you know, I am now seriously mulling that as a viable hobby path, albeit mindful of the fact that I will be wasting the decades I have spent building a deep knowledge of and indeed, deep roots in the historical gaming hobby.

So, perhaps I will indeed go down that road in 2025. I certainly get a lot of pleasure from the sword and sorcery genre. I am not intereted in those systems which try to dress Orcs as WW1 Tommies - or as I have termed them (and I claim this as copyright: M Hides 2024 and as trade dress of Satanic Panic Miniatures) 'Fantastorical'™ games.

The Christmas game is 10 days away and I decided to create a cheeky little meme to goad those who will be attending:


Oddly, despite the fact that fantasy and sci-fi are so popular these days, there does seem to be a greater gulf between the two disciplines apart from where 'Big Box' companies are churning out the wargaming equivalent of Quorn - tasteless pap, which satisfies without true nourishment of the soul.

Speaking of the Christmas game, I spent a couple of hours out in the game room yesterday, generally tidying up and laying out a table of snow covered tumuli, topped with pines, bisected by a wide river with a single ford.

Simple terrain, but I am looking at a massive cavalry based fsword & sorcery clash for this year's Christmas game:

 


I was in there again at 7AM this morning, fixing new signs to the wall, and revarnishing my much beloved piece of Dixon Miniatures artwork, painted a long time ago by Clive Jebbett. This is an iconic piece of wargames artwork, and at 6x4 feet is massive. So, there I was, freshly showered and the rioom dust-free, with my professional artists varnish, bringing it back toa satin finish which, has really brought out the shadow-hidden details:


I love this painting as it ties me to a misspent youth and friends who are thousands of miles away and in some case on other planes.

Well, it's 09:51 and the day is passing, so I better sign of for the present, as the postman appears to have delivered me a Citadel Giant of dubious authenticity and I must undertake rigorous testing in my tower...

 

TTFN


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