AN AUGUST GAME NIGHT

 

The view across the room as the club gathers for the August Game Night. 

Despite the ongoing constraints catalogued in recent posts, there are still interludes of hobby activity.  This last Friday, I headed out to our club's monthly Game Night, which will be the subject of this post.  Unfortunately, I don't have details of the course of the particular games, so this will be more of a "virtual visit" on the general goings on. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post.

The evening kicked off, as all do, with the club president (currently Byron, above), introducing the slate of games and welcoming guests, of which there were many (five or six, by my count). On this particular club night we also had a strong turn out from members (more on that anon), a definite sign (fingers crossed) that we've moved out of the long shadow of COVID and back into the swing of things.  As usual, for our game nights there were three games scheduled:

Greg (standing) ran a 28mm Great Northern War game (Swedes v Russians) using his modified Test of Resolve rules. 

Greg is known for his superb figures and presentation, and this game lived up to expectations. 

Bob O (briefing players, above) ran the second game, a 15mm Battle of Plevna game (Russo Turkish War) using his innovative set of modifications for Command and Colors.  

On a previous game night, I played in one of Bob's RTW games using this system and can attest to its viability--and Bob runs a top notch game as well. He has created his own decks of cards that he had professionally printed, and all of his other game materials (which he produced) look as if they came out of a retail box: a good looking game with great components (and an interesting era!).

AJ, seated at right, put on the third game, a Clash of Spears game pitting Romans against Carthaginians.

This is a new system to our club, so AJ had the added challenge of running a teaching game to a group of players who were starting from zero (in a group like ours, there is usually at least one person per side who has some familiarity with a given system and can help move things along: not so this night).  Nevertheless, we (I played in this game) were all up and running after several turns and were able to bring the game to completion in the time allotted (a Carthaginian win--the good guys for this night, since I was among them).  AJ has quite an impressive collection of ancients, both for mass battle and skirmish systems. 

In our club, we generally have someone bring a "stand bye" fourth game (something that is easily transportable and a light setup) just in case we have a heavy turnout and need more seats. That (happily) was the case this last game night.  With 24 gamers in the room, the August Game Night was august, indeed! We needed a the fourth, overflow, game, and Gordon (seated at left) stepped up in grand on short notice to set up and run a Star Wars Armada game.

The club is, generally speaking, focused on historical miniatures, but it has in recent years broadened its range into the so-called "alt" gaming genres, sci fi being among them (and growing in popularity).  

 

Having been consumed for the last two months or so with "real life" issues that have caused me to view my hobby collection mainly as a problem that needed to be solved, this game night came along at just the right time--and I'm glad that I pushed myself to attend. It provided a timely and important reminder that the hobby is not just about figures and terrain. 

Excelsior!

BOX OF BAVARIANS

 

Bavarian Contingent Command

Greetings, dear readers.  The period of disruption continues in these parts, with its impact on blogging and things hobby. However, there has been an upside.  As part of the process, I have decided to use this process to round out hobby loose ends, the subject of this post being a prime example.  While bundling and packing up my toy soldier stuff, I ran across a box of painted mid-century (probably 1870ish) Bavarians that were generously gifted to me by a friend and fellow club mate, Bruce.  Not having a complete Bavarian "army" (like my others), I stored them away "for later."  When running across them again, I decided that later had arrived.  I came to the rather obvious realization that I did not need to build a whole "army" of Bavarians to make use of these, but they could be used by themselves to field a very nice allied contingent.  So, rather than packing them away again to not be seen until who-knows-when, I pulled them out and got down to rebasing them. 

THE INFANTRY

I could have broken the infantry down several ways, but decided to organize them as a brigade of two regiments of two battalions each (using the two-stand per battalion model per my VnB Post-nap variant), with a half battalion of Jagers. 

Above Left and Right: one regiment in rose facings and one in yellow (mit Fahne). 

I pulled these Jagers in kneeling poses and spotted them on a single stand to represent a half battalion of Jagers.  

THE CAVALRY

There were two fine regiments of Bavarian dragoons in the collection (four figs each)--providing a nice cavalry brigade to accompany the infantry brigade. 

The cavalry regiments are distinguished by separate poses, with one having sword on shoulder and one sword carried, and by their rose and red facings. 

ARTILLERY

I decided to be a bit more selective with the artillery. There were four stands of guns and gunners in the collection, but I decided on rebasing only two. This was due in part to the fact that the mix allowed for two "standard" 3-figure gun crews (as depicted, with a commander, a loader, and a ramrod holder), with the remainder being multiple figures in the same pose (pushing the gun carriage).  Had I needed four guns, I could have come up with a way of configuring them (as Bruce had), but given the size of the contingent, two batteries are about right. 

THE COMMAND

Although the contingent doesn't technically warrant an "Army" command stand, I had a Prussian command stand left over, which started out with the figure in the greatcoat nearest to the flag (and an aide, which I pulled).  I then added Bruce's command figure (the one in the foreground in the brown boots) and retouched the other, covering up the dark Prussian blue with Bavarian Cornflower Blue.   I figure I can still add this element as an allied command stand as needed, particularly if I pull the flag (which has a magnetic base), making it more generic. 

And there was this handy command figures in the mix, which I simply mounted up. He will do nicely as the contingent/brigade commander in a game. 

USEFULLY BOXED 

And perhaps best of all, the entire contingent fits nicely into a single Very Useful Box (blue, of course, to signify Bavarians).  Bruce has since moved on from our club, but I would like to publicly thank him for this splendid gift, which I have finally done some justice to.  I intend to add this contingent to the first game that I get on the table (once I have a new permanent gaming space again). 

Excelsior!

BACK TO SQUARE ONE--MINUS A FEW

 

The cleared out (almost) Games Room...

Well, for those who may still be checking in around here, I thought I'd do an update on what has been going on here in Meanderer Central--by way of what has not been going on as far as blogging (and gaming).  In my last post, I concluded with a note about "real life" intruding on hobby life. That has continued (and intensified).  It all began with the skylights in the Game Room (above), which are original to the house. In other words, about 30 years old and now allowing water seepage. Thus, they will need to be replaced (and the water seepage damage repaired, repainted, etc).  

This was/is a particularly discouraging development in the light of the major effort that I had just gone through to reorganize the space and set it right (above), the process for which I reported on in this blog (and earlier reported on the major cull that preceded it). All of this, of course, meant that I would need to clear out the contents, eventually. Given that we have reached an agreement with a contractor to do the work but have not yet been scheduled for the job, this was something that could be put off for a bit (or so I thought).  Meanwhile, running in the background, Mrs Meanderer and I have been in the market for places we might move to, and at this time, we saw a house that ticked all the boxes--and put in an offer. Consulting with our realtor, we also decided that we should put our current house on the market. Suddenly I was under the gun to clear out the game room as part of prepping to show the house (and hopefully an accelerated date for repairs) on top of everything else that was happening (prepping the rest of the house, dealing with the myriad of things involved with the new house)...arrrrrrgh!

So in short order, I wound up repacking my hobby stuff and schlepping boxes,  boxes, and more boxes up into the attic. Above is a shot of a portion of the haul.  We are fortunate to have a house with a swing space like this to store stuff.,,but still. There was no joy here.  As I was going through this process, I was struck by the obscene amount of space my hobby stuff takes up, and all of this after I thought I had cleared out and streamlined my collection.  Looking at the opening picture, you will note the still full shelves against the back wall that have yet to be shifted. After going through this, I'm not sure that all of the stuff that went into the attic will be coming back...

...in particular, when I cleared out what (I thought) was a modest two-shelf remainder of my culled book collection and found that it still amounted to 9 boxes of books, plus two plastic bins, I was about ready to walk them to the nearest dumpster rather than to the attic.  But I decided to store them for now and take another hard look when I pull them out.  Meanwhile, we were doing similar work in the rest of the house, not just in my game space. But the effort involved with shifting my hobby stuff dwarfed any other chore.  Like many, though, I guess I've reached that point in life where we reassess our hobby pile. For now, it's all safe and sound. I know that I'll need to find a more settled time to do a sort rather than do a hasty purge under duress. In short, a very busy time (to say the least)....

...but then, the inspection for the place we were going to buy came around and we found some things that made us decide not to close. So we weren't moving after all. Fortunately, we had not yet listed our current residence, and so put a halt to that process as well.  In short, we're back where we started.  While all this was going on, we had family visiting from out of state, a major heatwave, and a bout of near flooding rains (although we were fortunate in these parts to just be very, very wet and not suffer any actual damage).  Despite the halt on the move, we have taken this opportunity to continue to clear out the house, declutter, and make it easier for us to move when that time comes.  In addition, this has meant a parade of DYI projects for me--all those little things that you live with but need to set right in order to show a house.  Regardless, I will need to keep my game room empty in anticipation of the repairs that will happen there (eventually)--and most likely I will probably just keep my stuff boxed up rather than putting it back again. So I probably won't be running any games for some time. 

So, like Jonah, I have been swallowed by events. Once the "real world" spits me out, I hope to be able to return to the far better world of blogging and toy soldiering.  

Just so that this isn't too dreary and a complete waste of time, toy soldier wise, here is a cache of images from my  Joust for the Fun of It  Big  Knight Collection. I have put together six teams, each with unifying theme...

Each team consists of four knights, two "ordinaries,"  one "notable," and one "lord." For most of the ordinaries, I used the same figs (above), painted and modified for each team. 

As a play aid, I made these markers for each team. They are 1.5 inch x 1 inch wood wargame stands, stained, with each having the shield design of the knight. They track which knight has been used (flipped over) and which has yet to joust.  Each team has a color and/or theme (as usual, you may clix pix for big pix)...

Team White

Team Black

Team Red

Team Blue and Yellow

Team Green

Team Paladin (Crusader Themed): nicknamed "Salt and Pepper" for the black and white.

That's it for now. Looking forward to resuming normal levels of surfing, blogging, and commenting in the future. Thanks for stopping by. 

Excelsior!