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"!!!