Summer 2019 Update

Well, the best laid plans... Spring of 2016 as my last update?  That just wont work.

Presently, I am "playing" the following games (I say "playing" because a lot of what I'm doing is often on the workbench, but the intent is there!):

• Bolt Action
• Heavy Gear
• Cruel Seas

As you can see, I've paired down my list of games by a big margin.  Now, I still have everything I need to play Flames of War, Tanks, and others.  I have just found that either the current edition of the rules do not suit me, or there are no players in my area.  I mention them, because I intend to work on them, they are just a low priority compared to the three games I actively play now.  

I went through others over the past few years.  Bought Team Yankee.  Sold Team Yankee.  Bought Blood Red Skies.  Still have it... played it twice. Cleared out of all of my Force on Force/Tomorrows War stuff.  Briefly dabbled in Kill Team (40k), but handed that off to the next generation (gave it all to my son).  X-wing is sitting on a shelf, maybe off to the sale bin (again).  I even got into doing 1:800 scale warships, though that has fallen off since I got into Cruel Seas (its 1:300).  

So what next?  First, I need to look through here, see what my plans were, and compare them to what my plans currently are.  I'm anxious to get some how-to guides up.  My year in Korea was very well spent, both work and hobby related.  I learned a lot, and I want to share that.  I'm interested in figuring out a way to record hobby videos.  My current youtube channel is all my streaming (link below for those interested), but I feel that making some guides might be helpful, if only to motivate me to get working on stuff.  

I've been trying out new products.  New techniques.  Actually putting paint on models and putting models on the table to play.  Its crazy.  

I attended my first gaming convention last month.  Historicon 2019 in Lancaster, PA.  It did wonders to get me fired up again to work on these projects, as well as to share it with whoever is interested.  So here I am.  

What can you expect here?  At this time, I'm setting up a status update with my main three games.  Full photo spread of what I have, what I'm working on, and what I'd like to see happen with them.  From there, maybe a video or two.  It will be rough, but new projects always are.  I'm thinking I'll start with Heavy Gear, as there are already plenty of good videos out for Bolt Action and Cruel Seas, I'm not sure I can really add much to that at this time.  

All in all, I just need to keep up the motivation, and get these projects off my bench and onto the table!

Until then, check me out on YouTube and Twitch.  I mainly run World of Warships, but I'm trying to get set up for tutorial videos (or something similar):

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/ByzantineFalcon/

Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/byzantinefalcon/

Spring 2016 Update

It would seem the buzz over Team Yankee has died down somewhat.  Considering I pre-ordered the rulebook from a store a few hours away in December, but it is almost four months later and I have yet to even read the rules, I will admit my own interest in waning.  I still plan to work on the models I purchased in 6mm, so hopefully actually getting the rules in my hands will get me motivated.

Though, I have to admit, I am somewhat glad it went this way.  Battlefront just announced the new rules set for the Afgantsy Air Assault Battalion which is how I had wanted to run my Soviet force anyway.  Of course, this means I need more Hinds.

Flames of War is on a semi-hiatus as well, at least with playing.  One player moved, another found a new hobby (that I also share), and another is on a different shift.  Makes scheduling games fairly difficult.  Still, work is proceeding along, just at a slow pace.  I would like to make this the year I FINALLY finish an entire army, and I have fairly high hopes of accomplishing that.  My Soviets are all in the beginning stages of painting, with the infantry almost done, and the tanks moving along.  If I can just keep from adding any more units, I should be fine.  Also, by the time I get it done, maybe the tournament points will return to a higher total so I can run the horde I had planned.

The Heavy Gear Kickstarter is showing some progress.  It was supposed to be delivered last November, but they are being good with the communication on status, and the delays are understandable.  The Living Rulebook (Beta) looks to be pretty solid as well.  I played a game about a year and a half ago that went fairly well.  Since then, I have been content to just continue working on the figures I have, planning lists, and watching videos.



I have some rough ideas of how I want these figures to look.  Basing is pretty much set, I decided to go with the Privateer Press 'lipped' bases, and I am heavily pinning most of the models.  My Southern force has been worked on since I started buying them up in 2013.  The Northern figures I have are coming along much more slowly, I had to re-plan the whole force with the Beta rules.  I still have the Peace River models unopened in their boxes, I wont even get into that until at least one of the other ones is finished.

Recently I decided to get back into X-Wing Miniatures.  There are a few local players, and it seems to be a much better casual play game, so I have been able to play it much more easily.  I am amazed at how much it has changed since I played last.  New faction, several new waves, and a fairly active organized play structure.  A friend and I started a cinematic play campaign using his Rebel Transport, and that has been pretty fun.  I wont go into a lot of detail on that, but felt it was worth mentioning.

I want to try and keep this updated, but the time I spent writing, I am not using to finish projects.  Still, I imagine a few people still read this, so I want to make it worthwhile.  As I can, I will update projects, post photos, and have some resources available for those that are interested. 

Back Home and Gaming Again

That was quite a break.  Between getting ready to head home from the middle east, to the actual move, then settling in, gaming took a back seat to just about everything else.  That is not to say I was not gaming, just that I did not have the time to really write about it.  My apologies to anyone that actually reads these.  I am hoping to correct the sporadic nature of my posts.

While I was away, some things changed in the games I played.

Flames of War - I picked up two more late-war books covering German and US forces.  Between the main four I own (Bridge at Remagen, Desperate Measures, Blood Guts and Glory, and Nuts!) I have enough to run a nice mix from both.  Settled on the Heavy Panzer list from Bridge at Remagen, the Panzer Kampfgruppe from Desperate Measures, and the Volksgrenadier list from Nuts! as the primary three.  I could do more, but those have a nice overlap and use a good portion of the miniatures I own currently.  I would have dropped the Volks, but I have already finished nearly half the army, so might as well get that one wrapped up.

For the US there are two armored lists (one in Bridge the other in BG&G) that are pretty much the same, with a few different options.  Good news there is that I also pretty much have everything I need.  All I really want is enough to have 2-3 decent forces to play with, because I think the odds of finding local FoW players is slim to none.  The gaming community here is fairly small, and seems to be limited to 40k and Warmachine.  If I have two nice looking armies, maybe I can inspire folks to give it a try.

SAGA - They finished up SAGA in the Viking age with the Byzantine supplement while I was still deployed.  Nothing new there.  Then they went and released a set of SAGA rules for the Crusades (Saga: The Cross and the Crescent).  Naturally, I had them on pre-order.  I think they are getting delivered this week.

I am sticking with my plan of doing them up in 15mm.  Originally I had considered doing a single force in 25/28mm, and even traded for a full Norman army to assemble.  While I am not sure if I want to follow through with that or not (it mostly depends on how much I can get done over the next month with other projects).  15mm is quick and easy, and cheap.  I can assemble several forces, and even get a decent table set up without too much effort.  Pretty much everything I play is in 15mm, and it just works better.  I might be supplying both sides for every game I play, but I had planned to do that anyway, and this way I can afford to do so.

Heavy Gear - We got a whole new rules set while I was away.  Frustrating, because everything I had planned to do with the Southern list I assembled has to be reevaluated.  The Northern list I was working on (the Crazy 8's!) also got changed.  Presently, the rules are in the Beta Test stage, they even released a cheap printed rulebook for that.  As it stands, I am thinking I will just use the models I have to actually PLAY, maybe assemble a few other squads, and worry about the overall scope of the units once the rules are set.  As I said, it is still very frustrating... Putting together a few lists and buying models for those lists, just to have them tossed aside with a rules change.  That is a big part of why I quit playing 40k and anything else made by Games Workshop.  Still, they have one free one here, the rules DID need an overhaul, and it looks to be an improvement.

Force on Force/Tomorrows War - I wish I could say I had some grand plans here, but that is not the case.  I have my painted forces for FoF and any Zombie related game, but they have been in foam since they got painted.  I can barely find anyone interested in gaming in general.  I THINK I could get some military interest in FoF, based on the tactical nature of the game, but my heart is just not in it right now.  I know I am not trimming back on those games, but I would need some serious interest from another player to get going again there.  Possible, but not a high priority.  Same deal though, I have a few models that do need to get painted up.

I am going to have quite a bit of free time over the next few weeks, so my plan is to write up a plan of action with getting models assembled and painted, see what I can get done, and adjust as necessary after that.  I have trimmed out so many other games, I am down to the few that I have any interest in at all, but if I can not muster the interest in the time I have (currently in abundance) then I should probably reevaluate the whole thing.  Lets see how I do.

Layout, Changes, and Video!

Ever since I got back to posting here, I have had this idea in my head of how I want things to look, but I could not quite figure out how to make it happen.  Still playing around with the layout of the page, trying to get it there, but still do not quite have it.  I like the colors, but the bar on the right might need some tweaking.  Also, I was thinking of a menu at the top with kind of a collection of links to various pages.  Breaking up the posts based on "How-to's" and "Projects" or some such.

Also, I am really thinking about adding video.  I have an iPad mini that has a pretty decent 1080p HD camera on it.  Maybe not as good as a dedicated video camera, but certainly good enough to get some tutorial videos up and running.  Any opinions on that? 

I think I have a camera figured out, a friend offered to loan me one until I get back to the US and can pick up a decent one of my own (they wont ship to APO, probably because of the battery). 

So, as things fall into place with getting the projects documented, I wanted to overhaul the site at the same time.  Maybe edit some old posts, clean up the tutorials I have already made.  Some other pages I have seen have elements I like that I might modify to work towards what I am thinking.  Only so much you can do with these templates.


My ultimate goal here is to have a resource like I would want to use.  Useful articles, lots of links, photos, guides, and all of the things I never managed to find (or only found after a lot of searching) all in one place, in an easily navigated format.  Mostly geared towards people that are newer to the hobby, but maybe still useful to someone who has been around for a minute. 

Feedback from anyone who reads this on what you would like to see would be awesome.