Good Life Gamer - May

 

Good Life May.  So how did May work out?  Let’s find out, together….

Buying

It went quite well, I found some 1/100 or 15mm scale aircraft from Revel, their micro wings range, which have some of the more popular WW2 aircraft I wanted and for less than £3 each.  I bought a Typhoon, a Hurricane, a ME109 and a FW190.  I plan to use these for both Flames of War (FoW) and Battlegroup Overlord (BGO).  Unfortunately the first kit I built, the FW190 was missing the canopy. I have  contacted Revel in German and I am waiting for the replacement to arrive.  So far so good.

I bought Airland Battle for the PC after an article I read on Model Dads.  Curse you.  It is very pretty and rather challenging but somehow manages to keep the pace of the game manageable rather than the 100 mouse clicks a minute that Star Craft 2 requires.  Set in 1985 means that I am very familiar with all the British Army kit as I served at this time.  This will unfortunately compete for my table top hobby time.

 If you have read previous instalments at Salute 2013 I bought some cowboy figures for Dead Man’s Hand (DMH) to replace the figures I lost.  Of course I have now found the missing figures and have enough for two gangs.  See I told you it would happen.  We’ve had a few games of DMH; there is a report from lordybloke here.  It’s great fun but the rumoured campaign gang development add on will be very welcome.  It will give a purpose to cleaning up Deadwood.

 I almost made it out of May with the majority of my funds but then we had a game of FoW and I decided that the British Paras needed some 75mm howitzers; I showed restraint and only scoped the purchase of one battery of 4 guns. I decided that having the jeeps to tow them would be very useful and almost essential for BGO.  This sadly led me to think about having a recce squadron which was another 8 jeeps.  I shopped around.  Whilst I could find other jeeps that were cheaper, they came without crew.  Battlefront turned out to be most cost effective supplier for British jeeps with crew.  With my finger only a click away from ordering I remembered that I had commissioned my original British Paratrooper Company with Weewarrior.  I emailed them and for only a small amount more I could get all the figures and painted.  Done!  I have spent a third of my bankroll.  Eeek!

Selling

I need to sell some of my surplus.  I have made quite a big dent in my fund and I have a sizeable overspend on my pizza oven project – not gaming but very exciting – so I had better have a bit of a selloff in June.  Some more 40k bits and bobs still hanging around including a Gaunt’s Ghosts platoon.  A bit of touch up on the bases should see them ready for eBay

Building

I based the Musket and Tomahawk figures on pennies and they work great with the xxx bases.  A test game with Binx proved very enjoyable and I am playing again soon

 

Painting

Painting has been misfiring all month.  I got a good start on my vehicles for the impending Battlegroup Kursk campaign starting at the end of July.  All the tanks that I need were assembled; base coated, camouflaged and the decals applied.   Next is washes and weathering but they have sat untouched for 2 weeks.  I also took the final figures for the SS commission I have been working on.  I painted the Panzer II and have only the driver of the schimwagen to complete.  Once this is all complete I will get a some pictures posted

Planning

Force on Force is languishing in purchase limbo despite the enthusiasm that both Binx and I have for it.  It’s probably for the best right now.  In my usual easily enthusiastic about games persona my head has been turned by In her Majesties Name, other steampunk games are available, and I am not alone as Lordybloke has shown interest in this genre more than once.  My head was turned further; so much I heard a click, as I looked once more at FoW Vietnam also known as Tour of Duty.  Helicopters how can you not like helicopters?  I am probably alone in this game for the moment, at least until 2014.  However Binx likes a bad guy (when will he learn they will just use him and dump him?) and will no doubt go for some North Vietnamese.  He also likes a man in black pyjamas so I expect him to collect some Viet Cong too.

See you in June

 

Zed