Sunday, August 9, 2015

Blog updates and Discoveries

I've come across several blogs in the past month that are new to me, and have far fewer followers than they deserve, so I thought I' share them with you

A Light in the Dark
The blog of Robert DeAngelis, who describes himself as:

" a happily retired veteran wargamer. We have lived here in Cataluña for some 30 odd years. I seldom have live opponents and am quite happy to game solo in all and every period or scale that takes my fancy."

Robert's current post deals with a  very clever and attractive basing scheme for Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules.



After you look at the 6mm figures, read some of his older posts about them - they are sculpted (commercially, with some conversions) from MDF plywood!


Wargaming with Maximus Gluteus
Veteran wargamers will immediately recognize the "nom de plume" of Dick Bryant, long time editor of The Courier, which was IMHO easily the best wargames magazine of all time. My subscription began in 1969, and I submitted my first small article for inclusion within a year thereafter. The Courier was short of glossy pictures but long on really useful  and inspiring articles that were never just another rehash of history you could read elsewhere. Dick's blog actually dates back to 2010. He post infrequently, for which he may be forgiven after 40 years of editing Wargames stuff, but the thing he posts are interesting and useable, such as a set of mini scenarios for the WW2 "Crossfire" rules. His current post is classic Courier humor of the "SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED" style; check it out for a good chuckle (and probable  self recognition!)

Dick also contributes to the blog of his local wargames group in Mass, "The Kingston Irregulars"; the current post is about a clever, short Crossfire Campaign.


Historical Gaming Guide (aka, "Making History")
This rather bland title is the blog of Ricky Bryant, Dick's grandson. Less than a year old, it already has plenty of great content, starting with a series of "how to" posts on making bocage, wooded areas, telephone poles, wheat fields and more. I've missed running into Rick and Dickat least twice now, once at this past Historicon (and evidently at least the other 9 preceding ones), and HAVOC in Shrewsbury MA this past March; that time was no accident.  It snowed all day, and the temperature was warm enough that the drive up on Saturday was fine, but, as I related in my own HAVOC post, the drive back was long and very, very treacherous! Anyway, drop by and check it out!


I've taken advantage of some down time to update several of the Pages on this blog - The Napoleonic Uniform Guides, Ships, and Ancient Armies pages - with new links and other data. I still need to cover the rest of my Ancient armies, but I have new incentive to do so now, I've finished my second read through of Simon Miller's ancient rules, "To the Strongest!", so you'll be seeing and hearing more about both my aged Ancient armies and these rules soon!

Peter


11 comments:

  1. Thanks, Pete for the kind words. I will be at Havoc and at Huzzah next spring. Historicon is questionable (I hate the venue) but my grandson will be there. I look forward to seeing you there. Meanwhile if you are ever south of Boston contact me at mgluteus@aol.com - we game just about every thursday night and some weekends near Whitman, MA.

    Dick Bryant
    Charge! There are no lead widows.

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    1. You're welcome, Dick. All well deserved. to say the least. Fredericksburg is a hike from the Boston area; I can make it there in about 6 hours if I time it right to miss both the NY and Washington rush hours. I can live with the FCC, but the Host was definitely more convenient and more vendor friendly. I really liked Valley Forge; too bad the Casino was a better revenue source than convention and meeting traffic!

      Huzzah is a possibility only if I don't go to Historicon, which is unlikely The budget, marital harmony, and my professional schedule only allow one overnight convention a year!

      Boston is about 3+ hours from my home in Western CT, so I'm only rarely out that way. Thanks for the offer regardless!

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  2. Very much awaiting both your TtS impressions and seeing your ancients armies on the table.
    Which period gets your first crack at TtS?

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    1. I think the first play test has to be Rome vs Carthage. First it's a classic matchup, and the rules started with the classical era. Second, I have large armies for both. Of course, I'd like to put my Egyptians and Assyrians on the table, ditto Byzantines, Sassanids, Palmyrans, Macedonians, etc! Heck, TtS has rules and lists for Hussites, and I have a great Hussite army...

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    2. I would enjoy seeing each one of these classic match ups one after the other!
      Say, have you tried Impetvs yet?

      I am leaning towards getting my long neglected ECW collection onto the table with a test of Basic Baroque Impetvs as my next gaming project.

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    3. For some reason I have yet to try impetus. Maybe some day?! No one in our area has either, which is interesting as everyone currently seems to have a different favorite set of ancients rules!

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  3. Some nice ,inks there Peter. I find I am spending increasingly more time moving between various blogs than I now do on some of the traditional forums.

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    1. I'd agree, Lawrence.

      Saw the most ridiculous quibble on TMP today regarding a spectacular (professionally) painted and rigged 1:1200 Langton ship, and one of the commentators observed that the color of the masts was wrong as they were made of pine on that particular ship, and that the color of the pennons was wrong as she was under an Admiral of the Red at such and such a time. Really - for her entire length of service? And I suppose the masts were neither tarred, weathered, nor replaced during the ship's history, either? Sheesh!

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    2. Well, I missed the TMP post but not surprising. We see it all the time. TMP is packed with pedants although fewer now than in the past.

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  4. Thanks for the heads up on my blog. Glad you liked it. To be honest I don't really blog to attract followers (although that is nice in it's own way) but to act as an incentive to get stuff finished to post and as a way of saying thanks to all the other blogs I find so inspiring!

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    1. You're welcome, Robert! I think we all have a variety of reasons for blogging, and self motivation is certainly one of mine, as well as documentation of my efforts for myself. However, I think that expanding your contacts and interactions with other dedicated wargamers across the globe (it takes a certain amount of work and discipline to post regularly over time) is one of the big pay opffs from blogging.

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