Club night, new project alert, painting update and the SM challenge...

Last Friday saw the first game of the year. Stef and I faced off in a game of Songs of Blades and heroes, Stef bringing along a warband of LotR Southrons and I dug up my Confrontation Griffons. Normally this games is supposed to be a quick one, but because of some crappy dice rolling we switched turns faster than statistics would predict so it took a long time before we had something resembling two battlelines forming in the center of the board.
Stef had sent a pair of archers out in front as skirmishers, always good for a quick kill, right? Not even close. I managed to get one kill in before the end of the game, on the other flank where there were no archers. A good thing, as those two archers would kill (or help killing) no less than five of my troops. The heavy infantry were looking on from a distance (and fearing job cuts in their branch of service).

At this point the game ground to a halt as a long lost member made a re-appearance after a long absence and the three of us got talking "Old School Gaming" and "Imagi-Nations". Something Stef and I have discussed as a possibility many times before, mainly based on the Wars of Faltenian Succession series in the excellent Battlegames magazine. I reread that series over the holidays as it came up in one of the "View from the veranda" podcasts, so the idea had come to the front again. Just what I need...
Later that evening I checked out Peter's blog "The Nyudrev Chronicles" (see my list of blogs) where he describes his efforts on "De Dietsche Unie", his Imagi-Nation based on the local area. I also looked at his Minden miniatures for his first infantry unit and I immediately started drooling. Great looking miniatures with a definite Old School look and reasonably priced...
Maybe I'll send for a small trial order next month, ten or so figures... But first I would have to decide on the background for my own little nation (as I was typing this bit, I came up with one of my silly, double entendre acronyms, but I'll keep it to myself for the moment).

This would bring my counter back up off course, but I'm on track to push it down again in the next couple of hours as I'll be finishing another batch of Blitzkrieg Commander infantry stands. When these are done I'm going to go back to 28mm for a bit and finish some of the odds an ends that heve been stranded on the painting table for a long time.

And now we get to the SM bit... Knowing the kind of guys that frequent blogs like this one, I am pretty sure all of you were thinking Space Marines, right? On the table was a five man SM squad and as I started slapping on a first coat of paint I started thinking (I know, nothing good ever came from that). Given the high point cost of Space Marines I should be able to finish, say 100 points of figures each month, giving me a smallish force by the end of the year.
I had painted and finished three figures as a test for the clour scheme, all I have to do is redo the base from the "Green fields of Kent" to the more realistic grey gritty bases I paint presently and finally give them back banners. That way I can claim about 100 points for this month as the figures are an officer and two sergeants. And the squad I just started will give me the points needed for February.

So in short and on the plus: played a battle, had a great club night, kept on painting and started a limited side project based on figures already owned...
Bad thing: I see something new looming on the horizon...


Happy painting and gaming!