Gamer On the Move

The short version is I got laid off on May 1 and we are moving to Houston, TX. I left for Houston on May 28th to find an apartment. This is a brief post to update friends, family and those bored enough to look.

I loaded up the minivan with my clothes, a pillow and random gaming stuff and headed south.

St. Louis!


Arkansas!

It was dark when I crossed the Texas state line so no picture. I stopped for the night in Lufkin, TX so I could start my apartment search fresh and alert.

Houston!

I met with an apartment locator (thanks Rhonda) who drove me around to look at 5 or 6 different places. I decided I liked the Villas at Edgewater the best and thanks to Shawna's hard work I was able to sign the lease and move in that Friday night.

The billiards room in the clubhouse

Giant dice, my kind of place (billiards room in the clubhouse)

Fountain in the clubhouse

My wife has been trying to train me that if you didn't take a photo it might not have actually happeneed so here are a few photos of the apartment before I unloaded the van and after. I thought I had brought quite a bit of junk but it doesn't seem like much once unloaded.

Washer/Dryer (yea, no laudromats!)

The kitchen

From dining area into living room

Master bedroom, walk-in closet and master bath


Living room stuff

Kitchen

Bedroom

Walk-in closet

A welcome gift from the Villas at Edgewater

and opened

This is a company "car" in Texas!

Sail Ho!

I have completed painting my Orc fleet for The Uncharted Seas. The models are resin castings with white metal sails. I'd like to find some 1/600th scale crew to put on them to give a little action to the models. Crisp detail and a clean casting with few or no blemishes or bubbles. Being resin they are a bit fragile and small details can break off. No problem for Orc ships that look a bit ramshackle to begin with. Perhaps I'll get better pictures in a bettle with Jeff's fleet (when he finishes painting it).

Little Wars 2009 After Action Report

We spent the weekend at the Marriott Resort in Lincolnshire, IL to attend Little Wars. Let me start by saying that this property continues to disappoint. It just doesn't seem to be a good value, we will likely stay at the Courtyard next door in 2010.

The convention was inside the hotel for the first time since being in this location. I liked it much better than in the tennis club. I think attendance was down, it just didn't feel like the usual number of people. Of course it is harder to judge with the new facility. The dealer area was nice but again I am sure there were fewer booths than I remember from years past. I just couldn't find things exciting enough to spend my money on (but I persevered and was able to empty my pockets and fill the trunk).

I only played in two games over the weekend. Friday night I played in a 50's era alien attack. I played the little green men. Here are a few photos I took with my phone.

The initial invasion and my ally to my left.

All is quiet at the drive-in and my ally to my right encounters the civil defense.

A helpless victim and Mars needs women.




The, ahem, Inseminator and and a failure to launch.

Reinforcements arrive (the drive-in screen is a portable DVD player built into the scenery).

Ultimately we all failed. The National Guard kept shooting all the women before we could capture them. Martian high command decided to blast the town after our failure. Though, I'm sure the Army would have nuked it to stop our taking over the Earth if we had been more successful.

Saturday morning I took command of His Majesty's forces in North America as General Howe in an American Revolution Battle of Brandywine what if? scenario. Though most of the forces under my direct command took quite a beating my overall plan succeeded and the British earned a well deserved victory. The commanders on my left and center flanks did very well and even followed my orders when they weren't convinced of the plan. Eventually they shattered the American center and sent Washington's army packing. We won't discuss what happened on the right (where I and another commander took charge of the dice) other than to say that the Americans fought well. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the battle. The guys from the Last Square always put on an exciting and visually appealing games and this was no exception.

I really didn't buy as much as I usually do at this convention. I am most excited at having bought The Uncharted Seas and an Orc Fleet. Jeff already has it and an Imperial fleet and he picked up the Elven Fleet. You can see some of the ships at his blog Jack of All Games. I hope to finish my Orc fleet before he finish his second ship (yes that is a challenge). Picked up a couple of resin trucks from Ramshackle Games. Nice kits with a lot of extra parts, highly recommended. I really enjoy Battlelore and the way it plays, so on an impulse I picked up Commands and Colors Ancients. It focuses on the Punic Wars and I hope Jeff will give it a try with me.



Overall I enjoyed the convention though I wish I played at least one more game. Of course this is a can't miss event for me. There is no question if I'll be back next year. One of these times I should run a VSF game.

Inspiration or What I do Instead of Updating my Blog

I've started following a couple of new(er) gaming blogs. The first is my friend Jeff's blog Jack of All Games. A regular opponent of mine he will hopefully finish a project before we are too old to play (like I can talk). The other is A Year of Frugal Gaming. Like most of us who have been in the hobby for more than two days he apparently has more figures, bits and projects than any reasonable person could finish (of course this is not a hobby for reasonable people).

A Year of Frugal Gaming would do all of us a bit of good. I have been doing my best to cut down on my gaming expenses. I have enough stuff around here to have a decade of frugal gaming (seriously, I have a lot of stuff in the basement). The best goal of a year of frugal gaming is to play more games. I can't agree enough. The reason I do this is to play games with my friends. The cost of getting together to game is relatively low. Maybe a six pack, a bag of chips and a couple of gallons of gas. No more than $10-15. In addition there is no better motivation than an upcoming game to finish a few more models or a piece of terrain.

I will be watching both of these blogs for inspiration, ideas and to see if I can keep up with Dave and his Frugal Gaming. Good luck to us all.