Tuesday 30 September 2014

Absent without leave.

I have been a bit remiss of late regarding posting on here, I can only apologise to anybody who actually reads it for that.  I have been pretty crock for the last couple of months and, to be honest, it's got me down and I have been struggling to get back to any form of normality.  Painting and gaming have both taken a big hit and I am finding it hard to concentrate on anything, so finishing anything has become a problem.  I am just waiting now on a referral to a London specialist to find out if he has any ideas for treatment of my stomach, as my local consultant has tried everything he can think off.  Ah well, I am still losing weight, so its not quite all bad.

Gaming has been very limited, just a couple of boardgames and a Napoleonic naval skirmish in the last few months.  I played Firefly the boardgame with Zob, Andy and a visiting Student Layabout Mat last week, which Mat won and I definitely lost.  Getting all your crew eaten by Reavers is not a good thing to do.  The week before that I played Axis and Allies: Battle of the Bulge a couple of times with Nathan, which I really enjoyed.  I enjoyed it so much I bought my own copy so I have it to hand.  Its simple and the combat system works very well.  We still have not managed an American win yet, but it's a lot harder for the German's now that we are doing the trucks properly.  If you can give it a go and see how you do, it doesn't take long to play and the rules are quick to pick up.

Last night I played a Napoleonic naval game using "Signal for Close Action" by Langton.  I had 2 French ships(a 1st rate and a 3rd rate) while Zob had 2 3rd rate British ships.  Despite my excellent rolls for crew quality and captains ability, I managed to completely screw things up in 2 turns.  First I rolled a double 1 and damaged my own 1st rate, then Zob rolled a well laid shot and took down 2 masts, then I rolled another double 1 and blew up my own gun deck, starting a major fire in the process.  Because of all this I had too roll several morale checks and, while I passed the first two, the final one was a test too far and my first rate ship struck its colours.  In all I rolled four double 1's last night, all on my own ships firing and all causing damage to my ships.  I don't know why I bother sometimes!

I have managed to get a bit of painting finished in the last few weeks, but they have all taken a lot longer than they should have.  Some more delightful 15mm Napoleonics have joined the finished pile, with another British Line unit being joined by some RHA gun crew.  I still need to paint their guns though.




Then there are the Foundry SWAT figures, eleven in total that I stripped and repainted as my old paint job looked quite crap compared to how I paint now.



I also got some Dead Man's Hand gangs painted for a nice chap in Germany.  7 Outlaws and 7 Pinkertons, which were actually quite nice to paint after the 15mm gun crews.

So that's it for now.  I am off to the dentist tomorrow, then to see a medical type on Thursday so it's all go here this week.  Keep smiling folks, it's not all that bad really.  This time last week I was preparing to have a camera shoved up my "Khyber Pass"!!!

2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear this, as a Chrones sufferer I understand some of what you are going through. Sounds like you have some good gaming friends so enjoy what you can. Figures look great.

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  2. Hi J, love the Wild West stuff, and thanks for not getting copies of and posting the other pictures! Good to hear the weight is still going in the right direction, that will have effect. In the words of the great man, "keep buggering on".
    Cheers
    JJ

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