I've been looking around the games room in the last week or so, and wondering if I could make more use of 280 square feet of usable floor space. I'm starting to tire of where the hobby is going now. All of this 'we have to like everyone (no you don't, you're human), 3D printed stuff that is often brittle and soulless and the dominance of what was a cottage industry with real passion by companies with an eye on income over product quality or longevity. So, with my painter paid for painting almost 4000 figures, I've called a halt to work because I'm really not feeling a love for my lifelong hobby at present. My friend had suggested we fight every battle of the ECW, but after I invested heavily (I never go into something half-heartedly) I realised that for all our overtures, we haven't played a game in 3 years now, and in all reality, probably never will because, well, I don't really now, but we won't. This saddens me to a degree I can't articu...

 I was looking at a few historical conflicts over the weekend, and thinkinging to myself 'Hey, they are crying out for a range of figures. I think I'll get my sculptor on the case...' And then I thought, 'Fuck it! We are already collectively snowed under with more ranges than we need.' Indeed we have more periods than a sorority house. And I really believe that. We have way, way too many 'periods' and ranges of figures, which the 'Big Boys' in the industry troll out as the 'next big thing we all  need  to play'. And, because we are, like it or not obsessive with I think a higher than average spread on the autism scale - myself included, before some young scamp does their usual 'hatchet job' - we collectively believe the hype and spend money without thinking about it, considering what scope there is and replayability.  Of course, the Big Boys, want us to get bored and start something else, that they will already have planned... And do ...

 One of the things I remember always,  always  seeing in the early days of my journey in gaming, was a section explaining ground scale and figure ratios. For me, these gave a benchmark, an idea of how things should look, and how they moved and behaved. Indeed, I opened my newly acquired copy of Spacefarers as I attended to my morning observances, and there it was on page 1, that essential information. They set the scene, they gave you an idea of what those figures were capable of. They were essential. I could easily understand how to transform real world unit sizes into miniature equivalents. A 600 strong pike and shot regiment with a shot to pike ratio of 2:1 could be easily worked out based on the WRG 1:20 figure to man ratio as 20 shot to 10 pike.  But nowadays you don't see them, or at least very rarely, and I think that it's another 'dumbing' down of our hobby to accomodate a generation who want everything to be like a video game in it's simplicity, which to me...

 As you will know, if you were a seasoned reader, before 'The Great Post Purge', I have always pretty much been an 'all rounder' in the hobby, being firstly a roleplayer, then swiftly after that, both a historicial and sci-fi wargamer, and latterly in the wake of the release of Warhammer, a fantasy wargamer too. True, I'd played some games with the AD&D mass battle system on an early White Dwarf issue, so I guess I really did hit the ground running with too many camps to have a foot in, under normal circumstances. But, I was used to having 7 comics per week, all differently themed, and I balanced those well, and so, being that particular type of dreamy kid of the 70s and 80s who did not have the distractions of today's pampered poppets, who try to recreate the 'authentic' gaming experience and generally fail to make more than a pastische effort, an 'Eton Mess' of the hobby, mixing up the metaphorical fruit, meringue and cream into something t...

 Sometimes, I get a pissed off... I know you'll find this amazing to comprehend, but it's true. Recently, I have placed some reasonably sized orders with several companies, in order to get all the lead in place for the 30YW project and a tsunami of 28mm models has begun to swamp Fackham Hall to the point that I can't keep up with it. Neccesity, has meant that to get certain troops, I've had to buy from one manufacturer who charges a premium for their models in the first place, which are 'OK, but not the best', but who make some stuff I need. No problem there, if needs must, but then you get hit for 10% postage, of which they supposedly refund any excess. Unfortunately this never happens.  This time, I was hit for an amount which was way over the mark, and when I chased this up (after all you can send up to 20 kilos for £8-£10 depending on whether you go with a 24 or 48 hour tracked service. When I chased up my refund, I was told that as I'd asked for my stuf...

 I have always had an interest in the power of ritual and ritualistic behaviour.  Any hobby is ritualistic, in that it has it's rules, secrets, paraphenalia and knowledge. At their best, wargaming/roleplaying were the most occult of all hobbies, save perhaps folk dancing. As the hobby has been exposed to the light, in that constant chasing of profit and an 'angle'. I guess that being reliant on the hobby for my own living, I am guilty in my own way, but in my defence, I do try to keep alive the wonder and creativity which I myself encountered over 4 decades ago now. As you know, I made a hard decision to not continue simply piling up 'stuff', engaging in that self deceit so many of us seem to believe, that a gamer cannot die whilst they have unpainted figures. Let me tell you straight, that they can and some truly great ones, have. The late Pete Armstrong was one of those taken way to early, leaving three young daughters and a loving wife, a few years back. Pete as ...