janewilliams20

At my sister's recommendation, I asked for a SAD lamp for Xmas, and got it. Since today was a particularly bad one for general inertia and lack of interest in anything I'd normally find interesting, I tried it out, while pulling out the box of Lego that I'd been staring at aimlessly and occasionally shuffling for weeks.
SAD works. I have been down the "to-do" list, Doing. And so, I now have two playable HOTT armies and a stronghold, in 40mm frontage, made from Lego minifigs. I have photographed them, and the part-armies in progress, and arranged suitable storage for them. Time to document them.

This all started when I saw some minifigs on Biggleswade market, and did a double take. OK, the hair was blonde not red, but armour, sword, blue clothing, star on forehead..... I had to have her. Then I wanted to give her red hair, so started looking at Ebay for minifigs, and realised just how many there were out there. One who was the spitting image of Vega Goldbreath, to start with. A Celtic warrior woman - again, no red hair, but that could be altered. I started bidding..... I visited the Lego shop in MK, I shuffled bits...

So, here's the result. A Flickr set of photos, with detailed explanation in each one.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/janewilliams/sets/72157649570300100

Still looking, planning, picking up cheap ones, but one thing has me puzzled. Look at the pictures of them with sword/spear and shield. They're mostly holding the shield in their right hand, weapon in the left. Why?

I'm also noticing that the cloaks, now I have a few, are simple pieces of paper/plastic/stiffened fabric, in quite a simple shape. I'll have to pick the material carefully, but I should be able to make those myself. Shield "transfers", for the Lunars, are on order - a pack of 13mm circular paper stickers, in red.

Just need some more red hair and a flying stand to turn up in the post.... Orlanthi and Lunar armies sorted, Undead well on the way, Praxian, Mostali and Troll got the first few...

Had my hair done - roots are no longer grey.
Picked up new glasses, and yay! I can haz close vision again!
Toddled around town centre getting useful exercise and establishing what WW goodies are on offer in the local cheap shops. Acquired some very cheap LED lights for potential modelling use, and some vacuum bags for packing the summer wardrobe away.
Went to Matalan, found that they no longer have a "plus size" clothes area, will therefore probably never go back there again.
Back to town centre, visited "Yours", acquired two new pairs of Jeans Wot Fit as sold by two happy and helpful ladies who wear the clothes sold in their own shop, and look good in them.
Blatted a pile of paperwork (recycle bin will not go hungry today).
Two loads of laundry.

Those armies?
The Zola Fel one has had the last details added to the stronghold (mooring lines for the Temple Barge, reeds at the water's edge), and had the final texturing added to all bases. I've found a box that all the figures will go in, I've found the river terrain, and all that's left is to finalise the army list.

Dragon-newts - painting complete, basing complete, just letting the basing compound dry before I add a bit of flock and some static grass. There was mild panic when I realised that the wonderful model I'd got for the Stronghold was rather larger than the maximum size for 40mm, but I've found a "spare" that will fit the theme rather nicely. I've got the base rocks for the Black Dragon done in a paint called "granite" that's a semi-metallic black, and I did some Mysterious Stones a while back in the same colour. I've got a box for the main army, and Dave's found me a way of transporting the Dragon as well.

Need to write up army lists, but I think we're there!

Crafting update"

Armies:
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Cooking - I did indeed make bean pickle, and very nice it is too. Using sweetener instead of sugar, the only WW points in there are from the tablespoon of cornflour and the mustard powder, so in sensible quantities, it's zero.

New skirt got the pocket fitted, and it got worn. Crafting time was cut down somewhat yesterday - I got a lift into work with Dave. He works 6 to 6, so that's a very long day for me even before we add in a visit to Hobbycraft (paints and Very Useful Boxes) and a pizza out.

Work was good. Attended a very productive meeting, caught up with people, got to know a new task management package, diagnosed and fixed a bug, did an on-line training course that had slipped my memory, and proved that yes, I can cope with normal office life (though next time, I'll be taking in some aids to carrying takeaway lunch while one hand is occupied by a stick).

Today - latest step forwards is driving the "big" car (the Clio) rather than the little one. Only to Sainsbury's and back, but I walked round the whole store without a stick, as well as driving both ways.

Tomorrow, next physio session - and I'll be driving there without a co-driver. Dave's on nights, and he'll be asleep.

 On the assumption that I am in fact going to get there, Id' better start planning what I'm going to run, and therefore what I'm going to write. I'm stuck at home for a bit, this is a good time to try to get at least some prep done. So, O fellow Continuum-goers, here are the possible things I could do some work on. Yes, all are Gloranthan.

1) The Great Duck Point Boat Race. I've run it before, I had requests last time to run it again. I could do it straight out of the bag, but I'd like to get the rules written up better, some sample boats and crews written up ready to go, and a few more "enemy" models painted up. I'm considering providing models rather than cards with numbers on for the player boats, too, but this may cause bias towards the sample boats rather than those created by the players.
Samples:
Dragon boat as "normally" used for the Boat Race, with duck crew (several)
Raft
Mostali hovercraft
any other ideas?

edit: much more detailed description of the game in the comments

2) "In Pavis Fair City" - a HQ 1.5 lite scenario I've got half-written. Detective work in Pavis, involving free beer (for PCs, not players, sorry)

3) Miniatures gaming - HOTT. I'd supply the armies, the 3*3 playing areas, a simplified writeup of the rules, and scenarios for each army to fight each other army. Games last about an hour. Each scenario would score runes (Storm, Moon, etc.)  to add up to a total at the end. Given enough participants, we could probably end up with a Big Battle if we wanted to. Ideally, though, I'd need help from another experienced HOTT player to help run this.

4) In keeping with the "end of everything" theme, a scenario for which I currently have only vague ideas, set in the fall of Whitewall. I already intend to run the Swords campaign through this from the Orlanthi point of view, this would be done from the Lunar side. The final major magical attack is underway, and somehow, the Orlanthi are resisting. Your job is to get inside and sabotage whatever and whoever is organising those unexpected defences (getting out again alive, as the city collapses around you, is optional).

5) Since I'm hosting the Storytelling, I'd better come up with a story. Anyone got any prompts for me, or suggested themes? Things you'd like to hear more of, older stories you'd like to hear again?

Tudor Arms, HOTT annual competition, for those who are looking blank. Wargaming.

Richard has shown us pics of his rather lovely new Wolf Pirates. They're going to need an opponent, so I'd better adapt Kallyr's army to be a 1630 version, ready to (fail to) defend Boldhome. Also so that his army and mine aren't too much the same troop types - he's also hero general plus paladin and a lot of warbands. I differ in having flyers,and my paladin is a new addition in any case: I'll happily drop him when not facing magicians. So I take a quick look at who Kallyr had as allies at this period, and note that in 1625 at least, she had Telmori, and Argrath White Bull. I've got a half-painted Kostajor Wolf Champion base anyway, that woold give me an extra Hero, or I could do AWB - maybe as a Magician? Some sort of Praxian... I've got a couple of spare Bison Riders somewhere?

I also need Boldhome as a stronghold. This is going to be tricky. I'm not short of reference material, "Home of the Bold" has detailed maps and descriptions. My problem is a city in a mountain valley, and scale. I may try to use layers of cork tile to do a contour map of the area, and then dress that up a bit: put in the final cliff and Eastern Wall, with winding road up to the gate. Evenif I use the idea of having only a strnghold-sized area on-table and the rest behind, though, it's going to be BIG, especially front to back., I may have to do fore-shortening tricks..

Under the circumstances, it would be completely silly to try to produce a complete new 25mm "classic fantasy" (as per theme) army as well, wouldn't it? So how come I'm watching Ebay for bids, and what are all those bases and figures doing all over the painting table?

A little late, but life intervened.
HOTT Avalon, in Glastonbury - we were asked to produce armies on the theme of "Mystic Avalon". I decided to have a go at the army used by Gwydion in "Cad Goddeu", the Battle of the Trees. This is an ancient Welsh poem that's so full of Mythic Significance that no-one can work out what it means. Since I needed a 40mm frontage arm (alrwady had a suitable 60mm one), I ran into problems in fitting trees onto base depths, and my troop types are to some extent chosen with this in mind.

( details and pictures under here )

Yes, it's that time of year again when I head off to the Tudor Arms near Slimbridge for a weekend's wargaming. Very good pub including accomodation, BTW, well worth using. Real ales, real ciders, real perrys, good food.
http://www.thetudorarms.co.uk/
As usual, I drove down Friday, had a pleasant evening in the bar with friends, and will be home Sunday night.
( wargaming bits under here )

I'l report back on the actual wargaming last weekend at some point, but for now, the Saturday night game. I took the Great Duck Point Boat Race along, this having been requested by the Sharrocks. I was interested to play-test my new ideas on how to handle the Dragonnewt Road, and to see what wargamers made of it.

( They liked it )
I'm pretty happy with that.

You know we had takeaway curry Monday night? We ordered a bit much, so Tuesday nigth dinner was... yes, the end of the curry. The rather-too-hot Madras was much improved by yoghurt. And then it was back to the armies...

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