June 2020 Sucks! But We Now Have A Cat 5 House!

 
  June has been terrible for our wargaming world for Kalissa and I. In May, our house had roof damage from a storm that caused leaks in our kitchen and our game room. These means that we have had little gaming this month in general. It took a few weeks for our insurance to fix said problem. Now, when they did the job at hand, they did a pretty good job. If things work out, we should have a home game, despite the Covid-19 second wave. At this point, I just want to contract the damn thing to get it over with. However, that still will not stop the cancelling of all of the conventions I would have been going to. All I know it that I am going to outlaw any talk of 2020 after this year in the household.
    But there was a positive to Kalissa and I's life! We have gained kittens. That is four of them at the tail end of April. Last year, Kalissa was talking to her mom outside when she was greeted by a small male cat. This cat is still currently the chilliest cat I have ever met. It seems strange that he is a stray based on his behavior. Kalissa named him Nimbus; and he would show up daily. We tried to allow him into the house, but Izzy, our cat, refused to allow it. She would chase him out the door with blind rage outdoors, despite being terrified of outside. She would run inside and hide afterwards! I was calling him an "HWC", because he was definitely been fed by multiply neighbors. HWC stands for Homicidal Welfare Cat. After a rather large cat fight with several other cats, Nimbus came out on top ruling our intersection. And then, he found a girlfriend, Kalissa named Calypso, which is a Calico Cat. She has been hard to catch and have been living under our house.
    Anyway, they seemed to have gotten along great, because we now have four of their children in our house. We have two boys and two girls. The boys are named Kinko and Peach. The girls are named Jupiter and Oreo. I am sure with the pictures, you might be able to guess which ones are which. And as for Izzy, she is not a fan of this! She could dominate these Nimbus kids, but she runs when Jupiter walks up and licks her nose! Things are calming down in the household. I am aware that the kittens will be a challenge to wargaming. They, already, really want to help with my commission projects. Maybe, I can get them trained to paint?

This is Nimbus: the chilliest outdoor cat!

Jupiter and Oreo.

Oreo.

Peach.

Left to Right: Oreo, Kinko, Peach, and Jupiter.

Kinko.

Nap time!

Impudent Mortal: A Loss of a Friend.

   
      Life has a way to remind us that it is shorter than it seems. In this case, it left a dark cloudy ending to a fun Siege of Augusta Convention. Our friend, Walter Langhans, Jr. passed away in at the hotel it was held at by an accident. We knew him as Walt and by his wife, Michelle that Kalissa and I would hang out with at conventions. We would share ideas and brainstorm how their business could make more money and just cool designs in general. Walt would support all of our Bolt Action Tournaments by giving us prize support, plus he designed some of the only MDF buildings I like. I don't them in a normal sense. That day he gave support for my Historicon 2020 game that I am running. In normal fashion, I usually try to advertise my support as a counter offer. I just did not expect to have to a more a memorial for a game. Kalissa and I found out about the accident after we got to my sister's house in Savannah, GA. The only blessing we found is that his wife, Michelle did not find him first. We discovered this at the funeral when Kalissa and I travelling to Atlanta for it the next week.
      Even though, this is a sad post I could not have posted earlier, this is a "Hats off" moment for a great all-around guy. I hope that some comfort will come quickly for his wife, Michelle. Though, there were not many gamers at the funeral, we were informed that she was going to head up to Cold Wars 2020 for a wargaming "Viking Funeral" He would have really liked that. Below are some of the designs we have that made gaming that more. He will be greatly missed by us and our hobby.

If you have seen this Barn, this was one of my favorite buildings we use at tournaments. We rule it that you can drive through it, if you vehicle can fit! Players got a kick out of that!

This board was made to showcase Impudent Mortal Buildings.

The Historical Line he created.

 

One of Walt's historical designs in action for an ACW Game. They were really nice and easy to build!

Commission Mission: Showcasing a Desert Project.

       Well, it is back in full swing for some projects I have to finish up. The Olustee Affair and the wild month of June had put me behind. But fear not! I will have some future goodies to post about. I have two projects I am doing at once to get them to my patient and kind clients. This one is just one section of the desert project. The other project is finishing off Scariff. I am not to a point of photographing it to it's full glory yet, but it will be very soon. It will just be some weekend warrior attack!
    Needlessly to say, I have gained some other projects, which tend to happen after a convention. It always seems like musical chairs on the order in which they will commit. I found myself complaining to my wife about why she lets me take on commission projects when all they seem to do is inspire more of my own projects. It is a never-ending vicious cycle. Make cool board; want new board and army or in the real case, armies. Kalissa has to have the opposing force. Anyway, enjoy!

Historicon 2018 Overview.

        Well, it was finally over for Kalissa and I for another year of Historicon. It had been a great trip to see so many wargaming friends across our community. I can not say I disapprove of the local this year in Lancaster, PA at the Host. I have been hearing horror stories about this place along with the countless complains back and forth over the venue. And when I hear horror stories, my ears perk up, since I like cheesy horror stories and monster films. The Host is a long trek to get to from  Fayetteville, NC at about 8 hours without any traffic issues. I expected 9 hours in general. However, I  gained a few extra days off from work I did not ask for, so Kalissa and I went to visit various family members in Maryland and Delaware. So in our case, the distance was an hour on the last trek to get to Historicon.
    For my review of the venue of the Host. It was very interesting. I can definitely see why people complain about this place. For one, it is still under renovations. There were unpainted walls, blocked off entrances, poor lighting in some areas. And there were STAIRS! Lots of them! Kalissa and I had a full step aerobic workout just wondering the convention. I know that I need the exercise, but some people may not be able to handle such things. The best way to describe the Host in it's current state would be: Resident Evil. This is the perfect set up for a Resident Evil video game!
   However, the one thing that this year's decision of using the Host did not do was steer me away from the word I came for: FUN. I really enjoyed this year's convention. I got to meet more wargaming friends that we don't get to see as often. I got to run 5 games along with Kalissa's 4. We got some goodies. I got to meet some famous game designers. And Kalissa got to be a judge for show.

    As many who follow this blog may know,  I ran my Olustee, Fl project for this show. I ran five games that everyone seemed to enjoy. I will post how those games came out as well as the rest of the convention photos. There will be a lot of photos. So prepare to enjoy!

Operation: El Guettar: Commission Mission.

   It has been a bit since the last post and a rocky last two months. A couple of things have happened to make things tough. One, my father had pasted away. It seems to be still an ongoing affair to settle his final wishes, since his funeral was interrupted by Hurricane Irma running over the area to not be able to get his ashes for my brother and I to take out to sea, which will be in November. So that was three trips to Florida in a two month span. Second, has been getting a new job that I like, but instantly took up more time than expected. Now, the hours are down to full-fill my project quests. And Third was the new shipping person for the company I buy fur from for my commission work that felt like pulling teeth. The pain of this was so great that, my new project for Waterloo, I got the fur I needed in record time! Thank God for that!
     Life can be interesting in that sense of chaos. However, with the Project of El Guettar, I figured I would just get this out the door, since it has to be to the client no later than Oct. 18th. This was a timeline that was not bad, though, it halfway interrupted another project. Now, that I am back on track, I am planning on "Movin' a Groovin'" as my 4th Grade teacher, Mrs. Krasner used to say!

    Anyway, the rundown on this project was for a WWII game for the Battle of El Guettar in Feb. of 1943. I instantly thought of the Patton quote from the movie: "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" I still think that the guy should name his convention game this. It is just a thought. Below was some images I based this one and the map I had to work with.

    I believe that this game is still going to use Bolt Action rules. Despite it being a short distance to cross, I am sure there are going to be mine fields. Plus, the  board is 6' x 12' in size. I would like to think I got it down for a board. It just needed some more details before it is sent out. Here was what it looked like at the time.

        Next project I will try to showcase will be Jay's Aspern-Essling Project. 

AAR: Bolt Action: Springtime For Germans in Italy!

     I had a realization the other day during March Madness that it was an interesting month. I had not played as much of our normal WWII games and I was in a rut with terrain building. A couple of things seemed to stem from this. For one, coming out of February, we had multiple comprises in credit and debt cards. This is something that never happened before the whole chip in the credit card thing that was forced on us. Then, there was finding that I had some defective fur to work with in the last two yards were their were unavoidable holes I could not work around. I guess I am selling them as small individual fields. Then, there was a back order for fur that turned into another back order. Essentially, I had my gaming space reserved for working on projects that I could not work on! So April is going to be different, by golly! Yes siree!
     First thing first for this April is that Kalissa and I decided to play a Bolt Action game. I had just mainly finished up one of many projects for clients that March had backed up for me, so of course, we are going to play on it! It was a fairly simple game of kill or be killed. There was no missions or objectives. It was just an excuse to throw down some dice, especially, since it came to my attention that Kalissa had not played a game all of last month. Her dice throwing seemed a little rusty, but she had fun! Anyway, I actually photographed through an iPhone that downloads our pictures in order. Here was the game and enjoy as usual!