Because What the World Needs Now...

...is another blogger, like I need a hole in my head.

Well, I finally decided to join the rest of the world and try out this blogging thing. For now I'll just keep it to my miniatures as I don't really like putting my Real Life (TM) out there for the world to see too much. As it stands, I plan to add pictures of things I'm working on, what I've finished, hopefully some battle reports from games, and my musings on my experiences in the wild world of miniature wargaming. Don't expect too many battle reports as I don't have a lot of time to play, but when I do I'll load them up.

Why do this as there are tons of other miniature wargaming related blogs out there? Well a couple reasons. The first is instead of me posting the same pictures to five message boards I can put them here and just post a link and a teaser pic saving me time. Second, why not I've got my views on things and want to show off my stuff as well.

So I guess I'll start this off by identifying what I play, what I'd like to play, and what I'm currently working on. The games that I am currently playing or will be playing very shortly are CAV by Reaper Miniatures, 5150 by Two Hour Wargames, Federation Commander by Amarillo Design Bureau, and with any luck Warlord by Reaper Miniatures. You'll notice two of those are Reaper games, they don't do the best at publishing but their miniatures are top of the line and I really like the concepts behind their RAGE system. Federation Commander is to satisfy that Trek fix I quite often. Star Trek was my first exposure to the world of science fiction many years ago. I still remember the first episode I saw, the one with the Horta, Devil in the Dark I think is the title of that episode IIRC. 5150 was something I picked up to satisfy 28mm skirmish gaming as I grew tired of Warhammer 40,000 several years ago. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it attracted me due to the fact that it isn't tied to minis from a particular manufacturer and has such an unorthodox game mechanic. I'm really looking forward to playing it when I have the chance.

What I've been kicking around trying are historicals, small scale fantasy, and space ship combat not related to Star Trek. The problem I've had with historicals is that I can't seem to pick a period. Though if I were forced to pick right now I'd probably go with either ancients, Seven Years War, or Cold War. The issue I've been having with small scale fantasy is I can't seem to find figures I really like and I'm not really sure what rules are out there for that type of game other than Warmaster. Space ship combat is kind of a touchy point for me. I've been (im)patiently waiting for Reaper to do Imperator which was supposed to be space combat set in the CAV universe (which as you'll see over time is my favorite game and miniatures). I even went as far as to write a game using the RAGE mechanics, but haven't taken the time to test it. I have this problem where I'll do something just to see if it works or if I can do it. That project fell squarely into the "can I do it" realm. Once the rules were written I kept making lame excuses for not getting the miniatures I bought for it done so I could play it and tweak the point system and movement mechanics. So that's one of my goals for this year, finish those ship minis and play the dang game.

What I'm currently working on is the Border Box #1 from Amarillo Design Bureau which is a collection of 24 miniatures as presented in their Klingon Border box set. Right now I've got two each of Constitution Heavy Cruisers, Old LIght Cruisers, Burke Frigates, D7's, D6's, and F5's about half done. I've also got the base coat on a Hughes-Marietta Czar for CAV waiting for me to finish the camo scheme on it, four stands of Andrayada 6mm infantry from Dark Realm Miniatures waiting for primer, Sadie with pulse rifle from Hasslefree Miniatures waiting for more paint, and several CAVs waiting for primer. I've got a lot of miniature painting I want to get accomplished for this year. Maybe that'll be my next post, the to-do list for 2008, as this first one has gotten much longer than I had anticipated.