Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you had a great one. Things are good here.

This week has seen many, many BLOGS posting that I follow. Too many to write about.. It's good to see. My favorite is Din of Battle has good stuff on building a 15mm trench system. (http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-wwi-trench-system.html) I like this very much. This has always been a goal to build something like this in 15mm. I think I would also like to build a small diorama like piece in 28mm for use in a true skirmish of trench raiding--in winter, naturally for something truly different. For me, WW1 is 15mm with the old set of rules called Over There by Nick Yankowsky (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/61945/over-there-miniatures-rules-for-warfare-1900-to). Having played them they give a great fast and fun game of WW1 on all the fronts. I even played a bunch of SCW in 10mm with this years ago. Every time there is a 15mm or 10mm release in this scale, I run the risk of jumping in...I like the 10's for the speed of painting, the look and the price. I like the 15's because they have just a bit more to them. Now if someone did a piece of foam terrain, then there would be a new period...well, not really new as I have always had plans to play this one. When I am doing this one, you will know that I have about finished my list. By the way, this group did two other rules sets that were good also: People's War and Chippewa (no BGG references, sorry). Strangely enough those rules are in my library and the periods are either under construction or on the list.

There have been some neat discussions, books and the like on the War of 1812. That's another one of my "Finishing Up" periods. 1812, WW1, the Chaco, The Great Paraguayan and the Schleswig-Holstein War finish my LONG list of periods I would like to have painted and played some day...I won't bore you with the list.

Speaking of finishing up, or NOT in the case of 15mm SciFi which exploded in 2010. That is both awesome and annoying. I have long collected small units or a vehicle or two of this and that over the years. All this hearkens back to Mark McLaughlin's great set of rules Princess Ryan's Space Marines (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24814/princess-ryans-space-marines). This is one of my all time favorite games. Oh, and contrary to the BGG listing above, the game was written for 15 mm SciFi. Mark's collection was massive and varied. Scotia issued the one shown with their line of 6mm figures. Serious enough to reward tactics but crazy enough to not take it seriously--kind of a battle game in the spirit of Rogue Trader skirmish. Eclectic, fast and versatile we used to play it in Vermont. Some games were stupid and goofy. Others were were serious and fun. I used to play this at Historicon in Harrisburg a hundred years ago when it was the excellent adults and kids game for Sunday. Long have I added a unit or vehicle to my 15mm collection. Now, I am seeing so much 15mm SciFi out there I run the risk of losing everything and jumping back onto the collection cycle. My all time favorite unit: a squad of the Voorhees' 666th Halloween Raiders (the Psychopaths) a unit that is equipped for futuristic combat that has a penchant for melee using the powerdrill and paint their power armor face masks white...yes, there are power drills in the melee chart. If you like this type of game, buy a copy if you ever see it. GW killed this one with cash; they tried to Cease and Desist it to death, even sued, lost and ended up buying it out. Yea for Mark who sent his kids to college and then some on the proceeds (a never divulged amount or settlement by Mark as he honored the release but noticed and estimated by the peanut gallery). And no, I am not a GW basher but this was a disappointment to me as PRSM disappeared and RT became a battle game. If you have ever played it, you know what I mean. Boo! for gamers as GW moved away from the Rogue Trader style of SciFi quickly and thus left a hole in the genre. If you have never played, I owe you a game. The price of admission--a unit or vehicle(s) in the spirit of the game.

Card and Boardgames Played:

Four of us played a vicious game of The Red Dragon Inn (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24310/the-red-dragon-inn) on Christmas evening. This is a great card game where each player takes the role of an adventurer partying it up in a tavern after the dungeon. The goal is to be the last man/being standing by out drinking, out gambling and out-lasting the other party members. Each character has a number of special cards with a standard mix which gives them strengths and weakness. My Bard character succumbed early very inebriated and passed out right before I almost had fleeced the other characters of their money through cheating at gambling and composing rousing ballads. My fate was sealed by a Dragonsbreath Ale with an Elven Wine Chaser in the drinking contest--I won, passed out and the party split my loot. The final battle of wits continued between Fiona the Fighter and Zott the Wizard. Fiona quickly tired of Zott's pet bunny Pooky and the annoying wizard and thumped him into unconsciousness through various blows and drinking contests. This is a great game. The expansion adds more characters and is worth having. Hopefully, they will add another expansion.

Boxing Day witnessed two games played in the spirit of the season. The board game game was a brutal race of Roadkill Rally. As per usual, the race was not over until the last possible moment with a very close finish. This time around the players seemed unable to hit a pedestrian. There were very few people run over. We did do a good job battering each other mercilessly. The kill of the game was when I miraculously survived a fusillade of shots only to fantastically lose control of my car on the penultimate tile.

Miniature Games:

With our Spirt of love and charity soaring, we followed the Christmas Death Race 2010 with a Frag match. Our hope is to play out a tournament of ten games over the next few days. We'll see if we make it but the game was full of mayhem and spite. People were mercilessly using personal nukes; Laser rifles, MG-42's, shotguns and mass driver cannons. Spencer art-fullly and joyously plastered us all into Kingdom-come with his BFG as the day of giving ended. My only regret was that I never got to experience the joy of giving with a newly acquired over-under MG42/Laser Carbine before the game ended.

Terrain:

See the aforementioned http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-wwi-trench-system.html

I received two buildings from MBA: the Customs House and the Governor's Quarters. I also was given the new Zuzzy Mat for urban fighting (http://www.zuzzy.com/wc-bb-001-terra-flex-gaming-mat.html). Lastly, MBA sent me a Trojan Bunny figure...I feel a Monty Python meets the Trojan War scenario coming on.

As for board game terrain, I did receive the terrain Expansion for Memoir '44.

Projects:

American Civil War.

Carlist Wars:

Colonialism/VSF:

Deadlands:

Doctor Who:

Fantasy/Dungeon Crawls:

French & Indian War:

French Revolution:

Lace Wars:

Modern:

Pulp:

Pony Wars:

Post-Apoc:

South American Wars of Liberation:

Seminole War:

Science Fiction/40K/Rogue Trader (not the RPG):

Spanish Civil War:

Trojan War:

Vietnam:

War in Pacific (1879):

Wildland Firefighting:

World War One: The aforementioned Din of Battle got my creative ideas flowing. I actually pulled out my black loose-leaf binder on this one and looked through my plans. I have been planning this one for 17 years. The question is which is scarier, the plans or the time...Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

World War Two:

Painting and Painters:

I was too busy to paint; but, Christmas saw a great box of CSA troops from Evil Bob land under the tree.

Magazines:

Too busy to read the new ones but hopefully next week...

BLOGS:

Din of Battle has good stuff on building a 15mm trench system. (http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-wwi-trench-system.html) I like this very much...

PodCasts:

Fear the Boot's Christmas Bonus episode was entertaining.

Mark