Some news

I too have bee struck by the "Beginning of School Chaos". The Girl started high school and with it Volleyball and marching band. The Boy is still doing competitive soccer with team we don't seem to have enough players for. Not good, since this is the year we play on a full size field with 11 players instead of 8.
With all these activities, I'm trying to finish two rule books, help on another and get my work done. Painting has taken a back seat.
On a lighter note, I will be hosting a Saturday morning game at RECRUITs. It's the Great Race game I hosted a few weeks back. Then, I using my rules, but Cluck Amok's toys for a FIW game in the afternoon. Then its off to a soccer game.
And Thursday's regular game night is now Wednesday irregular game night. But, it seems like everyone is excited for Longstreet and with a little fun with the campaign. Meet some of the generals, thanks to Photoshop.

Lead Addict

John of Curio Clashes

Essjam

Yours Truly

Daddy's back

I missed you all. This will sort of be a good news.bad news thing. Let's start with the good.
The horde:

I love Amazon. They have a wish list. I put all this stuff on it, the Baroness can just hit "buy". I've been coveting Smallworld for awhile. I have played many times, but the $60 price tag always threw me off. Target had for $35.

Being a great fan of Lunch Money, Epic Spell Wars looked like the same thing with magic and great artwork, done deal.

"Maurice" I am still reading through but can't wait to try. So far, everything I dreamed of (Might and Reason meets Commands and Colors) and more. 

"Popular Front". Read good reviews on Boardgame Geek. We played last Thursday and it was a great little game. Simple but lots of strat-tee-gery.

"Dux Bellorum" and "A World Aflame" are Osprey game titles. Probably crap, but nice pictures. 

Same for "Condotierre". Frank Chadwick is pretty old school as far as rules go. Got mostly for the pictures and OOBs.

Had to get the Conan Collection book and another Renaissance title to get motivated to finish my Italian Wars armies.

Speaking of mins...

What I painted over the break:

For Pulp Alley. She just has to be named Natasha.

Famed archeologist/adventurer Arkansas Bob

Lady Virginia Dare

Spanish Pikes

Spanish Command

Those Pig Iron Fellas I been working on.

a Scientist suitable for numerous genres.

And finished the much promised library for the Baroness. She was pleased, and so much celebration in Unkerlant was had.

with it done I had time/space to organize the minis:

Now the bad. On Christmas Eve my Dad had a stroke. This pretty much put a damper on the rest of the time off. He is better, but it has been devastating to the family. Anyone who has dealt with this and the weight of a possible nursing home stay knows what I'm talking about. Parkinson's had already robbed a great man of much of his fire and this was the twisting of the knife. Thus, my lack of posting. Thanks for any thoughts/prayers in advance.

-Zee Baron

Next post: VSF mini-skirmish

The story so far...

No game this Thursday, True Believers. So thought I'd take the time instead to update what's on the workbench, and what's next for the Baron.
Currently on the painting table are 24 French Napoleonic miniatures I'm painting for Lead Addict. Some of the Basement Generals have volunteered to to each take a unit, so we can finally do some Nappy gaming in God's Own Scale. Even great Perry sculpts cannot help from reminding me why I don't paint more from this period. All those lapels, and straps, and buttons! After painting the simple uniforms from the War of Spanish Succession, let alone the Italian Wars, this is a chore.
Right behind the Frenchies are more Italian Wars. This is a project I actually have light at the end of the tunnel for. Like my VSF stuff, it's one of those periods I can keep building on, or not, as much as I want.
While on the subject of projects, let's review all the irons I have in the fire:

- Russian Civil War/ Back of Beyond: One of those "in between" periods I'm so fond of. I have a few units done, and enough bare lead to sink a ship. Seriously, I have obscene amounts of Copplestone RCW troops. Like, moving crates full. Troops can be colorful and easy to paint. The hold up? Terrain. Yes, the Russian steppes are easy to pull off on the gaming table, but the buildings are sort of unique, and most battles centered around rail stations. Trains suitable for 28mm? $$$$$$$$$.

- Retro SciFi: FLASH! Ahhh-ahhh! Almost there, but again. I want to do it right. The scene. The set. The rules. They all need to do it justice. I plan on this being more of a RPG-lite ongoing serial.
- Hail Caesar (Sauron): There are a bunch of tiny Dwarves staring at me, waiting for paint. They look angry.
- Fistful of Lead, Horse and Musket: The long awaited sequel to my original Cowboy/Wild West rules are done. What I need are scenarios, proofreading and art. Oh, and enthusiasm.
- Unkerlant: Though the war has raged for years, alas, to my great shame, it has been waged with paper soldiers mostly, and not lead.
There you have it. Just a few of the many projects waiting in the wings. And most likely where they'll stay.
I have two great kids heavily involved in sports during the week and most weekends. I have a wife that actually likes to be around me. September has been a total shit month. A ton of work. A huge event to put on at the end of the month. My father was hospitalized (briefly, thank God). And the death of close family member who was the same age as me (42). Suddenly, time spent driving my kids to practice, was well, time with my kids. Simple things like sitting on the couch, holding hands with my wife watching TV became more important. Silly arguments, became silly arguments, easily forgotten.
Perspective.
Little lead guys can wait.

10 games that define me

Prompted by Lead Addict and others who have done similar posts, I thought I I'd post 10 of the games that have got me where I am both as a player and a game master. They define the kind of game I want to play in and run.
Some are role playing games, some are wargames. All effect where I am now.

Dungeons and Dragons
The game that led many of us down the path to tabletop wargaming. I was twelve or thirteen when the definitive boxed set of D&D came. Talk about the right age, the right place the right time. When I wasn't playing or running a game, I was feverishly creating my own worlds and vast treasure filled dungeons. It fueled my creative writing, my drawing (I was the guy who drew everyone's PC) and my imagination.
Soon after I started playing, Grenadier released a boxed set of miniatures that came with painting guide and paints. We all know where this led.
It taught me how to share what was in my head.

Star Frontiers
I played the shit out of this game. The box and rules I still own in his held together with tape, stables and sheer will. Most sessions were fly by the pants, made up on the spot, free floating adventures. My wife once asked me if I could back in time to relive one day or night, what would it be. Without hesitation I answered. It was not the day we met, our wedding day, the birth of our children although those were close seconds. It was one muggy, summer night my eighth grade year. It was one of our free wheeling sessions that became epic. The adventure unfolded almost by itself. Space Pirates. A hidden base. An epic battle where heroes were created and lost. Try as we might later, that feeling was never recreated. It taught me what was possible.
Also, I think everyone was in love with the girl on the cover. Hmmm, that why I married a redhead? BTW I didn't get in trouble for my answer.

Villains and Vigilantes
I always loved superhero comics. So when I saw there was game where I could be one? Sign me up. The art was by Jeff Dee, and for years after my drawings aped his style. The group I gamed with expanded with V&V. I got everyone to play. More than once the high school football team wasn't at a party after a game. We were at my house, eating fresh from the oven cookies baked by Mom and fighting epic battles to save the earth. V&V taught me gamng could be for everyone.

Fistful of Lead
Moments after attending my first Wargaming convention I was pissed. KC has a large gaming community. Mostly great people, but some real dicks, too. I tried to play in a Wild West shootout game. The guy running it was one of the aforementioned jackasses. Rules can't be that hard, so I wrote my own. Thus, Fistful of Lead was born. It's pretty much unchanged since the first writing and has been a staple of the Basement Generals and local cons. For whatever reason there has been a jump in sales. Maybe people are tired of complex rules?
Ffol taught me I can write my own rules and also that a game can be easy and fun but still have depth.

Flower of Chivalry
I can't remember how I stumbled upon these rules from Canadian Wargames Research Group. I just know I'm glad I did. With a few modifications, it's become the rules we all love and hate. They give you plenty of frustration as those little guys just won't follow orders, and hillarious moments we still talk about. They're a subtle dance to me. You spend the first 4-5 turns jockeying for position, then 2 turns later, it's over. As you can see from our Campaign for the Kingdom, we play the crap out of these rules, of which the actual rules are 6 pages.
FoC taught me good things can come in small packages.

Fire and Fury
Missouri is steeped in Civil War history. The third most fought over state. And my family was right in the middle of it. There's still a few buildings in Lawrence, KS that survived the burning. Soooonnnn.....
Anyway, this is my go-to ACW set of rules. I think they give the back and forth of Civil War battles and the knuckle biting chance of failed orders. Often called Fire and Frustration, they're still one of my favs.
F&F taught me how to sit down and crank out some armies, and how to paint 15mm.

GASLIGHT
Thank you Buck Surdu and Chris Palmer. You were Victorian SciFi when Victorian SciFi wasn't cool. Hands down one of funnest games out there. Customize, build, let your imagination run wild. Want laser armed lizardman from Venus to fight steam powered unicycle Prussian lancers? We've got an app rules for that. Simple mechanics with fun results. This is definitely a club favorite.
GASLIGHT taught me you can mix historical and fantasy, and the sheer crazy joy of a well built game.

Commands and Colors
I was always a big fan of Battle Cry. It was rumored Richard Borg had originally pitched a Napoleonic game, but Avalon Hill thought the Civil War was more sellable. Soon after, a gamer hit town who had been part of Borg's original gaming/playtest group and indeed treated us to a Nappy version.
Now, I've always been fascinated by ancients, and much like Nappies have had zero interest in painting them. When I found out there would be a BattleCry-esque version for ancients I was very excited. And not disappointed. I love this game, but never seem to play it.
Taught me, you don't always need rulers and charts. A boardgame can be a tabletop game, right Cluck Amok?

Black Powder/ Hail Caesar/ Pike and Shotte
Just when I thought I'd never find a set of rules for some of my favorite periods, they showed up. We truly live in amazing times my friends. The rules lawyers, the debators and number crunchers will hate these rules. That's why I love them. Games that used to take days, now take hours. Something about these rules just clicked with me. Simple. Elegant.
Black Powder and its brothers taught me you can still kick it old school.

Super System 2
It's probably my love of comics and V&V that attracted me to Scott Pyle's SS2. His Goalsystem mechanics are, as you've seen me write above with so many other games I love, simple but elegant. A great core system, with endless layering. Our group never cared for the latest version. We still play this one at least 4 times a year.
SS2 taught me if you've got a great core mechanic that everyone gets, layering/fluff is easy.
Honorable Mentions
Crimson Skies- Two words: Flak Rockets
Blood Bowl- I've had every version since the players were card board and it took 8 hours to play.
Warhammer/40K- Taught me alot about what I don't want in a game
DBA- Same as above
Brink of Battle- Some Great Ideas here.
Anything by Sam Mustafa.

41, Life, and being a "Gamer Dad"

Wow! Was it a year ago I blogged about the big 4-0?
Recently, I've been following a couple threads on being a Gamer Dad, both over at "I See Lead People" and Lead Addict.
This has had me in my time of reflection which always comes around B-Day time, thinking of my own Proud Gamer Dad moments, and my little spawn. The more I think about it, the more I see what little clones my children are.
The Girl was first, and she has grown up next to my painting table. She was the first to ask to paint her own miniatures and the first to realize how frustrating it can be. She has inherited both my need for perfection, not in all things, but in things creative. It's hard for both us of to continue if we don't paint it, draw it, or do it right the first time. Then, go back after months, tear it off the stand and remount or generally "fix" it. I often find half finished drawings in her trash can because she didn't "get it right". She has also inherited my strange eye color, artistic abilities, and the love of the quiet and balance. But, in everything else she is like her mother, along with her mother's looks and mannerisms.
Favorite Gamer Dad moment: Her character , Miss Adventure, used all her money to save her brother's PC from the Land of the Dead. And then constantly reminds him of it.

The Boy, on the other hand, is so much like me it's scary. I often find him sleeping with a copy of the Monster Manuel under his pillow, or staging an elaborate wargame on the floor of his room, with rules he made himself.
When it came time at school to do "Wax Museum", an assignment where the students research famous people, then become them in a sort of "Hall of Presidents" ala Disney, he chose Napoleon, when others kids did Johnny Appleseed and George Washington.
He is ruthless in games, both video and tabletop. Full of bravado, he is inside, a very sensitive kid, quick to be hurt. I dread the day his character dies, as I know he will, with the kind of "charge in, ask questions later" character he has.
Favorite Gamer Dad moment: Fighting in a 8 way skirmish, he had wasted most his troops in a futile battle with Lead Addict's middle boy. They agreed on a truce. Not five minutes later, he turned to player on his left a whispered, "Hey, how much to kill this guy?" nodding his head towards the kid he just made a truce with. He wasn't going to attack, but that didn't mean he couldn't get someone else to do it for him. Ahhh, my little Machiavelli. As Darth Vader would say, "Ruthless and Inventive."

Friday nights, we feast at the coffee table, and watch some SciFi or mindless blockbuster movie on TV. Then, dig out a boardgame and play as a family. No, not Monopoly, but Carcasone or Settlers of Catan. They say they'll never get tired of it, but I know they'll grow up soon enough and not have time for Gildrid and Miss Adventure. But, I know they will. I just hope they look back fondly on there own Gamer Moments fondly.

Vive La Emperor!