The Man Cave: July 2022

15 July 2022

Mid year review

Its July - how the heck did that happen? Thought I might take a moment to see where I am hobby wise, in the context of 6 months into a new job with lots of travel and time away, which has dented the hobby time a bit. I've kept this blog, and while Twitter remains where I get most of my quick hobby hits these days, I do try to post items of interest between trips.

First up, the last six months has seen us playing mostly Kill Team which we have really enjoyed and see this as our most likely 'quick hits' of gaming. WarCry has also been fun but we haven't been playing that as often as I thought we might, mostly because of my increased travel. Its a good system, and quick to play. In fact, it would be really good to try the mechanics as a historical skirmish system.

The new GW Horus Heresy stuff has Reilly and I super excited, and the new GW Chaos Space Marine codex has us reaching with a new surge of interest for our old armies. I can see some narrative gaming coming up pitting my World Eaters against his Emperor's Children on Skallathrax!

In the background I'm slowly working on my War of the Roses army, with a view to the new edition of Lion Rampant coming out next month, as well as the update to Never Mind the Billhooks that is in development. It's been fun to do the Army at a "Battle Ready" quality for a change, where the massed look is more important than painting each model to character level quality. Also fun to experiment with group basing; I am using the 3-2-1 system for a dynamic look, which is how I see the chaos of a charge with barely drilled troops. I've been listening to Conn Iggulden's fabulous WOTR series while painting, which has been immersive. My latest army pics are here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2022/06/lancaster-reinforcements-war-of-roses.html

A thematic shot during our awesome pre-COVID Greece trip

Sitting on my "really want to do but time does not currently allow" shelf of shame are my Mortal Gods Greeks, which continue to grow. I really want to delve into some Mythos projects and Trojan War as well as the more historical stuff.

My slow burn Moongrunt project continues to...burn slowly. I have started to write some material for it though, in cooperation with Hayden from the blog Battlefield Pilsen http://battlefieldpilsen.blogspot.com/ Thats fun, because I can progress that (slowly) while away from home for some remote hobby time. Shows like The Expanse, For All Mankind and Silent Seas have helped keep my interest in this.

In the meantime, my 15mm Maschinen Krieger collection also continues to look accusingly at me from the storage area. I really like the gritty vibes of the Ma.K 'verse; just need to get some space to do the lovely models justice. If you aren't tracking the 15mm wargaming line of the famous big plastic kits, look here - Drew is a great guy and the customer service is fantastic

https://slave2gaming.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=87

Separately, it's been great to see Reilly build his US Paratrooper force for Bolt Action this year and get into the game with some of his mates. They are clearly having a lot of fun with it, and he is playing in his first tourney this weekend while I am away.