Week in Review 2: Vintage Games

Painting

Not a lot happening on the painting table last week. The mortar teams have ground to a halt and all I have to show (though not in pictures) are a few more dungeon tiles that got their last coat of varnish.

Purchases

Even though I have bought hardly any figures since Crisis, that doesn't mean I'm not spending any less money on gaming. Oh no! Other than buying some magazines and brushes, I still look around on ebay quite a lot and in the last month or two picked up one or two (or a lot more) items. And a distinct theme seems to emerge: vintage games (and toys). We'll leave my intrest in 50s tinplate toy trains to the side and look at the games.

Every once in a while I check ebay for the old 28mm Star Wars figures from West End Games and my search string included copies of Star Warriors. This is mapbased dogfighting game set in the original trilogy (parts 1 to 3 were still in a far far away future) featuring all the known and well-loved spacecraft. And yes, this was one of those "Ooh shiny!" moments. So I entered a pretty low bid, more in a "you never know" frame of mind than in a "must have" one and won with a pretty big margin left. A bit to my own surprise, I must admit. I'm sure I spent more on shipping than the game itself cost me: £6.51.
After reading through the rules, it should be pretty easy to turn it into a miniatures game, and as I have enough Micro Machines, Fleet Battles and Pocket Models stuffed away, this won't cost me anything (extra).

With "The Hobbit" nearing release and rereading The Lords of the Rings trilogy and a simmering desire to do something with a solo RPG campaign it was of ebay again to look for MERP from Iron Crown Enterprises. At a little over £8 for a copy of the 2nd edition boxed set, this was a bargain compared to what the expansion books will cost me. They seem to be more sought after a lot more. I did manage to find a few cheaply here in Belgium, though they took a lot longer to get here from Bastogne than the one I got from the States (guess the Germans are encricling the town again) and got another couple at reaonable prices. So far I have books on the kingdom of Arthedain (home of Aragorn), Bree and the haunted barrows and Moria.
But there are looooooots more titles out there. Ah well, just one way to avoid spending money on additions to the unpainted pile, I guess :-)

And this week?

Get those mortar teams finished, and start the second half of the battery. Keep working on my dungeon. Prepare the Mantic Elves Drakon riders that have just arrived for painting and ponder a colour scheme. Grey mountain dragons like my Lord has, or go for bleu/whitish ice drakons? Decisions, decisions...

Happy gaming and painting and see you next week!