Nimitiz - Second Game

I was in command of two IJN cruisers.  One was sunk, but the other got a devastating torpedo hit on a USN cruiser.

IJN squadron spots the USN

IJN cruisers turn towards the enemy

Nimitiz's mechanics are different, but simple and once you get the hang of them the game plays quickly.

There is lots of potential.

Barbarossa Revisited - GT 4

Again, no attack possibilities for the Soviet, more due to their units being eliminated!  Thay have nothing to attack with!

Not a perfect alignment,

but Soviet concentrations at Pskov and Minsk can be seen.

Riga is not well defended, but AGN have a long way to go to Pskov.  AGC is better placed to take Minsk and the Soviets will have to be careful not to get surrounded.

The Leak - Not About Wargames

So, I have a studio where I used to do my painting.  This was lost to me when my partner took long service leave and decided it needed painting.  It did and it has been done.  

However, she then has the idea that it would make a good guest room, sleep out, or granny flat.  It would.  Not that we really need such a thing.  

But what about me?

No problem.  I could have the front room...

Around this time our daughter moved out.  I had always had my eye on her room for a wargames room.  My partner had other ideas.

But first she decided the floors needed sanding and polishing.  They did and I went and compounded things by saying the front four rooms needing doing along with the hallway (this represents the old part of our house).

So, we embarked on that project. It's a nightmare moving all the furniture and possessions (mainly books) into the rest of the house, but, yeah, it will help motivate us to declutter.  The "us" being mainly me.

Anyway, halfway through the sanding of the front room, the guy doing the work calls me in.

A true WTF moment.

Well, it could have been one of our dogs sneaking in to the christen the floor, but no, they were safely secured out back.

I was raining... A rare occurrence.

Now, we had noticed a bit of peeling paint on the ceiling.  It had been there a while and I just attributed it to flawed workmanship as we have other examples where previous walls had not been properly sealed etc.  Grabbing a ladder, I clambered up to investigate.  Peeling off the patch the fabric of the ceiling was revealed.

Could be worse.

Floor polishing interruptus, I called the insurance company.  A few days later an assessor came out.  He used a drone to check out the roof.  No observable damage.  The ceiling repair was covered, but not the cause.  Great.  I had expected as much and now the challenge fell to me.

Into the roof cavity I ventured.  Cramped, dusty, dangerous and no fun.  I was also not optimistic that I would actually find the cause of the leak.

A picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words.

What I found was a hole through one of the insulation batts directly above the damage to the ceiling.  Strangely it was nice and dry.  Twisting round and looking up...

The crack

Well, this was good news.  It was a tile that had been previously repaired.  I assumed that a small amount of rain had found its way through over the years.  All I had to do was crawl out, get some filler, crawl back in and do a repair.

The sunny outside

That done I thought, maybe I should go on the roof and do some filling from the other side.  Nice and dangerous getting on the roof, but at least clean and not a confined space.  There are a few repaired tiles as can be seen, but the one causing the grief is hidden under the solar panel.

Case closed.

Of course, now the room has to be repainted which will delay occupation.  Luckily, I had reclaimed a bit of the studio and have been slowly progressing some hobby work.

Better still we didn't take up the insurance offer and I did the repair myself with the plaster I use for basing miniatures.  However, dust removal and painting will take a while, but looking on the bright side, it's a bonding exercise for my partner and myself.

Nimitz - First Game

 Five players:  two for the IJN and 3 for the USN.  Simon's hand-crafted models.

USN cruisers setting off

IJN cruisers spotted in the distance

Engagement!

Damning the torpedoes.

As a learning exercise it was perfect for the basic game.  The mechanics, while taking a little bit to get used to, work well and are easy to handle.  The tricky thing is checking firing and target arcs, and a potential solution exists which I am calling bow ties - small clear bases to place under the centre of the model to provide a visual for the arcs.

Barbarossa Revisited - GT 3

Still no attack opportunities for the Soviets.  The focus has been on defending the approach routes to Riga, Kaunas, Vilnius and Minsk.

The Axis are still a few days from Riga, but Kaunas is under attack.

AGC still has a long way to go to get to Vilnius and Minsk.

Imperial Struggle Again

This time, still playing France, I won in two turns.  Wait a minute.  Giving the initiative to the player leading in VP seems a significant benefit.  Oh dear.  We made a mistake.  Still, it was a quick game, and a quick game is a good game.

So now we will play again, with a new improved understanding of the rules.

ACW Rail Fences by Leadbear's Tufts

I have a plan to make fences, or rather more fences, for my ACW collection, particularly those distinctive to the period.  However, it is a project that is yet to get underway apart from collecting materials.  It might have happened had my partner not taken long service leave and decided to redecorate my studio.  It needed doing so can't argue, not that I would dream of arguing with her, but it did mean that the chances of progressing that project were close to the chance of Rish! getting reelected, Trump telling the truth and Australia having seven operational nuclear power plants by 2035.

Leadbear to the rescue. I think I might have mentioned previously that some of the floral tufts I have used, particularly with my Byzantines, are from Leadbear's Tufts.  In a bit of serendipity, I saw a post from Leadbear on Facebook offering some ACW rail fences for sale.  As it was my birthday, I thought they would make a wonderful present for ma belle-mère (excuse my French) to give me.  And so, it came to pass...

Rail fences pictured with some of my figures - perfect for 15mm.

The complete package.

Very happy!

Here is a link to Leadbear's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/leadbearstufts/