The Greatest Day Unboxing

Purchased MMP's The Greatest Day. It is part of the Grand Tactical Series and is designed by Adam Starkweather.

http://youtu.be/BONwwbN-KFI

Saint Maria Infante Unboxing

I'm a sucker for tactical level games.  I should just be content with the ones that I have, Lock N Load or ASLSK.  But alas, I'm not. Not yet, anyway. 

I posted earlier about trying the tank gamers guide from Critical Hit. It was okay, but didn't include infantry. And there weren't many armor cards available.

So, I've been looking to get one of the full games from CH to try it fully out. First of all, my wife runs a small business, my parents have, and most wargamers are small businesses.  So, I know that it's tough to do it.  Especially in this hobby because most people can't do it full time.  Therefore, very select choices have to be made on what can be don and how. That said, this is a tough company to figure out.

I'm not sure what games come with all you need. For example, some of the Basic Games coming out don't come with counters.  You order those separately.  There are more things, but I really need to back off my focus on CH.

So, why am I trying this then?  Because I enjoyed my experience with the tank guide and would like to learn more.  And there's a local group of players that getting together this month to game ATS.  I won't be able to join them.  But just the fact that there are 5+ people joining up means there are potential opponents.

Anyway, because I have an interest in the Italian Campaign, I bought Saint Maria Infante from Enterprise Games.  It's a used copy and was missing the rules and the play aids.  This is okay, because fortunately, I have a copy of the 3.09 rules handy and some fan made play aids...so I'm ok. 

BTW, i mentioned this fact to Don, the guy that runs Enterprise Games and he offered to cut open a shrink wrap and make copies for me.  I declined because I already have the rules. Then he offered a small credit to my account for my next purchase for the trouble. Very cool.

If  you're in the market for used or out of print games and magazines, he has good pricing and good service.  He also sells new games.  Again, one guy running the company so be nice.  He's easy to be nice too because he responds to emails and engages with you as a customer.

All this to say, here's  my unboxing video of my copy of Saint Maria Infante:

Live Game Plays...Also Google Reader

Google Hangouts, what I used for my vidcast a few weeks back, is a cool tool.  The Two Half Squads have used it for some listener sessions.  And now I've discovered Jamie Tranter, who's put up some complete plays of Bolt Action.  Occassionaly they'll give rules tips as well.  They also seem like a cool group of guys playing.

Man, am I ever a nerd.



And, I learned a couple weeks ago that Google Reader is going away.  Anyone have any reccommendations for an alternative?

Itinerant HO Episode 1

HO means Hang Out as in Google Hang Out. I had to sticker Rommel in the Desert and thought I would monologue to some of the people that follow me on YouTube... and readers of my blog.  So I called it Episode 1, not necesarily because there will be a 2 or more.  But just in case.

It's kind of like a podcast, but on crappy video.

Let me know what you think.



Oh, yeah, let me know, embed the video or just link to it?

Storm Over Stalingrad AAR Video

I read the rules, set up, played, and tore down Storm Over Stalingrad in just 4.5 hours this past weekend.  8 pages of rules made for a fun and quick game.  It's a puzzle of a game as you race against the 6 turn limit to take (or hold) the key objectives. 

Here's a video AAR I put up.

Couple lessons learned:
Germans need to move, move, move.
Russians need to put units into German areas to slow the Germans down.  They don't even need to fight them.  But when you have enemy in your area, it costs you an extra point to move into our out of the area.

Give it a try.  A nice experience in a short amount of time.

Remember to help out if you can to raise $1,000 for 50 people to get clean water at my charity water campaign.  Thank you.

Some Shout Outs - Podcasts and YouTubers

Thank you TheJoeyBerry for inspiration to create this particular vid - more shoutouts and positive vibes for YouTube - go watch, listen, sub the following-

Watch TheJoeyBerry
Watch terrainaholic
Listen to The History of World War II Podcast - http://worldwariipodcast.net/wordpress/
This podcast is basically a one man show where he reads like crazy every book on a particular subject and then retells it to the listener. He does it in a casual manner as though he were just telling a friend about it. I think of it like he's done a huge research project. He just finished the Battle of Britian. It took him 8 months and 19 episodes. He also does a great job of including both high level political, military views. As well as ground level perspectives.

He also just held a "talk" episode with the creator of the podcast below. Here, the guest asks the host questions  to clarify things and delve into areas not previsouly covered. A nice touch and change from the monologues. It all makes for good commute listening.

Listen to When Diplomacy Fails Podcast - http://whendiplomacyfails.libsyn.com/

Similar to above, this host  (really should get their names)  does researches the biginnings and causes of lesser nokmnown wars. I've just learned about  "The Second  Punic War,  The Franco Prussian, and The Russo Japanese wars. Lesser known to me because I've been so focused on WWII.
Listen to Bolt Action Radio - http://www.boltaction.net/2012/10/bolt-action-radio-episode-1.html

Battletech for Real Almost

Saw this at the Paint-it-Pink blog:

http://panther6actual.blogspot.com/2012/07/kuratas.html - it's a video from the Guardian website.

Free Wargame Rules

One of the guys I follow on Youtube, TheTableTopGamer, has some free rules for download. There are Here are a couple videos and a link to his website - http://freerules.blogspot.co.uk/

Game Table Fly Over

TableTopGamer asked for me to give a close up shot of my table, so here's a "fly by"

And, here's a link to how I made the bocage - sounds like the makings for another video

Painting 15mm Plastic Soldier Company

Well, I spoke it (trying 15mm) in a previous posting and here I am trying it - and liking it. The 1:76 scaled stuff just didn't do it for me. Such a strange thing, it wasn't even a "lose interest" thing. It was more of a, "I just don't enjoy this" thing. The stug was okay, but the bren carrier was just torture. Very weird. I've not experienced this before in the hobby...it was like a task at work that you despise.

Despise - strange. So, I put it away in the zen like way of knowing that I don't have enough hobby time to spend on things that don't bring an inkling of pleasure. So I put them in the box with the other 1/72 scale stuff for that day when:

• I decide to trade for something I am interested in.
• Sell it - though, honestly, they won't get much
• Get a different urge and paint it and play with it.

With all that said, I was nervous about the Plastic Soldier Company set because  you have to put on these tiny heads and arms on a few of them. (Must be something with the extrusion process that they can't get them in one piece.) So I've assembled and painted a few - and have enjoyed the process. It's taken a little over an hour to do these. A little more speed would be nice.

Also, I would not put them on a board like this again, It's hard to manipulate them without bumping some of the previously painted ones.

And, I would prime in black/dark grey. At this scale you the light primer defintely shows your misses. It doesn't really make a differnce on the 6mm I've painted. However, at this scale it does.

And, I would paint the skin, just like most of the tutorials say, after the first base coat of uniform. Then touch up uniform, then boots, helmet and other details.

So, here are several sets of videos that I've done showing my progress:

Hobby Game area nearly complete

I say, "nearly", because is the work ever done? I'm pretty happy with the design of the space. With the help of some other gamers who posted their pics, my mom (who's pretty good at this kind of thing), my wife and her lighting design eye, and Stephi at The Container Store, I have an organized space that is now more inspiring. With the neatness comes more creativity.

Before

After

The table on the left is 4' 1" tall and about 2'x4'. This height is right where my elbows come to rest when I'm standing and put my hands in front of me. This table will be used to story minis while in progress and in between steps. It could also double as a small game table. I play 6mm, so it's huge. Now that I think of it, this may be a good table to recreate some ASLSK boards on.?


There is, of course, the painting table. The wire grid is from The Container Store. AW (Awesome Wife) helped with the lighting, suggesting I put the strip under the shelf. As well, she suggested the use of the fixture we used over the gaming table. These are actually very expensive flourescent strips that she's been given in the past as samples - yea!

Then, there is also the game table, under the new added, fixture. The lighting will be better for gaming and photos.

While this is primarily a storage room in our basement, I would gladly have a friend over to play in there. If I want to have more over, I'll have to move out to the main room.

There are a few more things I would like to do with the room. Eventually, I would like to move away from the cardboard boxes - discarded ones I mean, and move to the plastic. However, this is one of those things that can wait and budgeted over time. Good bday/xmas/sale purchases. Also, more wire grid and shelves for that.

I just remembered, I would like to have a place to hold books open for refernce,
something to hold the iphone for charging and listening,
glass holders
sides on the tall table so minis don't fall off and die/and I could put some cool scenery in there
a way to store large pieces of terrain
come to some sore of gamer piece on how to store my armies

Like I said, "nearly".

 More exciting photos here on the Picasa web album.

Even more exciting photo tour on YouTube.

PS I used my new iPhone4S to take the photos and video - another yeah!

Cool video of refurbished WWII equipment

Some cool video of equipment. Nice thing to have when painting...blast, shouldn't have colored my tracks so bright red - oh well:
There are a lot more to see, go check 'em out.