Adventures in Wargaming and History

A third of the way through the year already! Wow! Time is certainly flying by. Last month was a pretty good month overall, and a good lead in to the nice weather months. So, lets see what I did this month.

Books

Actually finished a couple this month surprisingly enough after the three I finished last month. I usually have a gap but I was close to finishing one and the other was a shorty.

First up was this one

After watching American Primeval I wanted to learn more about what was touched upon regarding the Mormons and what was going on at that time. Wow, a lot! This is a well written and engaging book about the "conflict" between the Mormons and the US government, well, and anybody wanting to get to California. Eye opening, there should have been quite a few people dangling from a noose, but, there wasn't. Highly recommended.

Then there was this one.

Every once in a while, Instagram will lead me somewhere I did not know I wanted to go. That was the case here. There was a suggested post from a person talking about their struggle in getting their Korean citizenship back. She looked Korean, so I started digging to find out what the deal was, and found she had written a graphic novel about her experience as a Korean child adopted outside Korea, Sweden to be precise. It is an interesting and heart rendering story to be sure. The ending was not particularly surprising but it was bittersweet none the less. The book really makes you think twice about what's really going on in these adoption centers.

Purchases

Purchases this month were an eclectic bunch. First off I picked up the starter set for 02 Hundred Hours. I have to say that reading the book about the Bielski's motivated me to do some partisan actions. I thought that would be an interesting game to do that with, and it seems as though it is easily solo-able.

Wargames Atlantic really has a nice selection of digital prints and I came across one of Basil II The Bulgar Slayer. I have been needing a theme for my Byzantines, and I finally found one. He came in this month from Strange Plastic WA's third party printer. I keep wanting to get a printer but I have held myself back. Not sure how much longer I can do that.

I had purchased some German Grenadiers that were supposed to be out of the box but a complete box, from Noble Knight Games off eBay. When I got them they were 2 sprues short. I contacted them and they handled it right away, sending me a complete unopened box of the same. Now I have plenty of troops to build my Spanish Blue Division.

I also picked up 12 of the new Wargames Atlantic Peasants to build some Ribauds/Brigans for SAGA Age of Chivalry. I like to have some options.

Some additional Bolt Action Items were the Armies of Germany book from eBay (many hobby stores have an eBay store as well), and a mix of British Airborne figures, dice, and pin markers from Goodwill.

Then lastly I picked up the Warlord Chronicles set of books. I don't know much about Arthur, so I figured Mr. Cornwell's books were as good a start as any. I'm About halfway through The Winter King already!

Gaming

I did manage to get in a game last month! our SAGA league started so there should be a game every couple weeks. In addition I am planning on getting together with the MESBG group in a couple weeks. Things should be looking up in this area.

Painting

This was a very good month for painting despite being sick three weeks ago. You know, I've noticed, at least for me, its not that I get any sicker now that I'm older, but, it takes a good week to recover back to normal afterwards. Anyway, back to painting. Here is what I got done.

222 15mm Italian Wars figures

23 28mm Samurai

3 28mm Romans

The Italian Wars figures complete that project for now. I have what I need for Pavia, and most of what I will need for the rest of the scenarios. I will need to add some Italian foot but those can come later.

The samurai are just figures from my prodigious collection of unpainted samurai, and the Romans were to complete a couple command stands.

Here are some pics of the stuff I finished off with basing and flocking this month.