The Second Twelve days of 2012

Condottiere--continues to hold my interest. I have been unpacking figures and moving to shelves of figures of all sorts but have come across suitable late Medieval and Early Renaissance that a game of this is definitely in the 2012 future. It turns out a buddy has a bunch of the figures, too. In line with the interest, I took a few looks at comparative rules and canvassed some of you. The goal was to determine what Frank Chadwick intended for the range of the field artillery. It is obvious that he intended a longer range than made it to publication. Unfortunately Wargames Foundry and the author are silent. Looking at the range ratios of various rules in the same genre as Condottiere has me convinced that the range should be 60" for the field gun. On a "knee-jerk" level, this makes sense. Most of the actions are going to start with armies either in range or almost immediately so. Good luck trying to get out of range; in many ways this is good as it stimulates the other side to move and close. I have played too many games where you spend the whole allotted time advancing to contact with the game ending just as it gets interesting.

Miniatures--I have been too busy of late to play miniature games. School, kids, sports, dogs, day-to-day, etc. all have conspired to keep the miniatures in the boxes and the terrain on the shelves. Even painting has slackened as I grow tired of skeletons, dwarves, Chaco and Pulp. Thankfully a bunch of this was finished and based. Finally. I also sent some of it off to get painted as I was starting to feel overwhelmed as my ratio of completion reversed and went berserk. I closed a trade on some HeroQuest, HeroQuest Expansions and Advanced HeroQuest that sent the ratio over to the wrong side; then, I received a Mantic Crazy Christmas Bag as a late Christmas Gift which plumped 102 assorted figures into my lap. Now, I have some serious painting and building to do. I moved some budget money from uncommitted to painting and sent some figures off. Bunker Monkey helped by delivering six mounted and dismounted cowboys to the table for basing...when they get based that will add 18 to the completed side...other than that, I have seven days to make some headway on the month.

Boardgames: I had a few of these get played over the first few weeks. My kids have shown a new interest in boardgames that was fun. Unfortunately, exams have caused that to taper of. We did play two games of this one:

Tales of Arabian Nights by Z-Man Games (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34119/tales-of-the-arabian-nights) can be had from various places for around $40.00.

In the game, you are a hero or heroine in a story of adventure based upon those told by Scheherazade. Players travel seeking your own Stories and Destiny. You will travel, gather fabled treasures, learn fantastic stories and gain wealth! This game is thoroughly recommended. We palyued another iteration...I was kicking butt and then we had to stop...oh well, I think I might actually have won this one against my kids.

Bret and I managed to get a game of Citadel by Fantasy Flight Games. It's a card game of city building in the Middle Ages. I was skeptical but found it to be a good game. I will happily play it again. We also tried a full turn of Age of Conan. Although it was a slow strt the turns should rocket now that I have enough of an understanding to teach it. It is definitely a four player game. It also captures the feel of the genre at the power politics level. The four major powers use military or diplomacy to accomplish their goals. Magic can have a powerful but not all conquering impact. All the while, Conan is adventuring across the land and effecting the machinations. All in all, I think this one needs to get some table time...

The Blogs--I trimmed my following from twenty-nine to eighteen. It was taking too much time just to look. I hope to trim this further.

The Pod Casts: Not much here other than my daily diet of news. I continue to follow the Gamer Gang for my gaming news and Fear the Boot for my RPG interest.

Goals:

• Budget red lined and went over for the month due to an unexpected delivery of some stuff from Litko in their Lab area and Stone Mountain bringing some long ago ordered buildings back into production (a promise to buy is a promise to buy). That will make next month tighter but I have almost no products on the radar. Historically, the post-Christmas season runs over budget; Febraury is way under in the run-up to Cold Wars and then March is either on track or under. Really, I only have one set of rules and the Wargames Compendium 2012 on my wish list for the Convention. So that leaves plenty open for painting and projects...or saving for the next big thing.
• Miniature count is in 1:5 painted to unpainted. If I finish basing the Cowboys from Bunker Monkey my ratio will drop to 1:5 which is better but a long way from where I finished last year. The month could finish even better if I do some basing and finish gluing the six painted Star Wars vehicles. I could actually even balance it with just a bit of painting. High hopes.
• I count an individual 28mm or 15mm, 10mm and 6mm strips of infantry as one figure;
• Cavalry counts as two;
• Limbers, guns and wagons as two with each horse as one;
• Vehicles as five-plus figures depending on the size.
• Prepaints are a zero-sum one figure in and one figure completed unless there is work done to them and then they are costed as above.
• Seven boardgames played this year.
• HeroQuest, Two HeroQuest Expansions and Advanced HeroQuest arrived intact. The quest for two expansions Wizards of Morcar and Frozen Horror have begun. Problem is there is a knucklehead on eBay who thinks they are worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars. It does not matter that they have listed these at insane prices and keep relisting. What does matter is by listing it too high, no one is posting their sets. Or if they do, they post them at crazy prices that don't get bought. As is, I have the books. I can use my Dwarven Forge for the maps, so I guess, I'll have to proxy the figures but the style is hard to match. The other option is to buy parts and gradually put them together. I did that with a Space Crusade expansion but I would prefer not. Short story if you have one and want to sell it let me know...but I am not buying it for $1,500.00...yup, that's what one guy lists it at. Oh, and he lists a collection of the game and some expansions at $10,000.00--totally cracked and unrealistic when you can get a mint game for $80.00 if your careful and patient.