Bumper crop of Christmas Goodies!

Santa (and his many helpers) were very kind to me this year.  Actually it was the being together with all the family and still feeling full 2 days later that was most awesome, but lets face it - our inner kid (and not so inner - we play with toy soldiers right?) still loves pressies right?

Cutting to the hobby related stuff, Santa got us a family ticket to see the Hobbit in 3D and we went yesterday at the first session of opening day.  We really enjoyed it, the departures from the book made sense to me and worked well, and it was done in a lighter tone than the Lord of the Rings.  Reminded me of an Indiana Jones movies actually.  Well done and highly recommended.

On the Dark Ages front my recent SAGA adventures saw me score very well: All three SAGA rulebooks, a box of Plastic Norman knights plus a set of crossbowmen to complete that army, and the newly released Irish Warband starter set from Gripping Beast.  Lovely Jubbly!

And the big surprise this year was my combined 40th Birthday and Christmas present from Comrade James: Battlefront's 'Open Fire' Flames of War starter set and the new book 'Normandy Battles'

He is a sneaky one that Comrade James, knowing that I have secretly wanted to do 15mm for years but with no opponent and an aversion to collecting terrain in a new scale.  Now that he is coming back to live down the road, we can get a good campaign going.  I will be very interested to see how the lad goes with this - I have no doubt he will play it but think his heart will be with Blood Bowl and games like that for awhile yet.  Still, he has already claimed the German force (grrr...) and having watched 'Kelly's Heroes' and the like, I think he'll enjoy it. Thanks James - awesome pressie!

Hoping your Christmases were just as great! Back to playing our in house Blood Bowl competition: "Santabowl"!