R & R

 Hi everyone, I'm pleased to say that after nearly three weeks in hospital and two minor surgeries later, I'm once more back at home, being cared for by my wife and family. I took the opportunity to ask the nurse that was changing my bandage to take a photograph of the underlying wound, hence the photograph !
No stitches these days, just staples - all 26 on the main wound!

Thanks for all the support, both on my blog and those by email, they were all very much appreciated when I was at my lowest, experiencing the most excruciating pain I've ever known. I'm still in some pain, but at least it's not debilitating and is well under control. I tire easily and quickly, so my catch up of all your blogs will take some time, but I'll get around to them all in time, as I get back in the saddle, so to speak, day by day.

My mission to playtest Frank Sultana's gladiatorial rules hit a major set-back too, but I'll be getting around to looking at those again as my hobby-related priority - but all in time.

In the meantime, as the title to this post suggests, it a major period of Rest and Recuperation for me for the foreseeable future and I still have energy-draining, out-patient appointments to attend.

 

Once more, thanks to all of you all that view this blog, for your support and well wishes, hopefully I'll have something more hobby-related next time, but that's it for this week.

AWOL

Two weeks ago I abruptly left the hobby/blogging scene without giving notice - sorry for that guys. but here's the full story, as best I can remember it.

Monday afternoon, 2nd May immdediately after finishing that week's blog post, I doubled over in agony  and unable to find any comfort from the pain, whether sat, stood or lying down.

This situation continued trhoughout the rest of the day and well into earl Tuesday Morning when just as I thought the pain couldn't get any worse, it did.

An emergency first responder was called out, gaing first aid and most importantly pain relief. An ambulance was also called to transport me to hospital, for diagnosis and emergency care. After an hour or two of observation, it was suspected that I had some form of trauma going on with my  Gall Bladder (rather than a suspected heart problem that was earlier suspected).

I was transported from the observationinvestigation ward to anothe rin my local hospital, where I lasted a couple of days whilst they confirmed the diagnosis.

Given the new diagnosis I was then transferred to not just a diffeent ward, but a different hospital ! Another ccuple of days in the wrong ward before I was oncemore transferred down three floors to a ward that did operate on my problem. Some scans, etc later and they were ready to do some 'keyhole

surgery to remove my errant Gallbladder.

Distance between arrowheads is approximately 2" (5cm)

You may just be able to see the slight signs of the surgery in the photograph to the right:'  

All of which bring me up to date with where I am (still in hospital) and awaiting more investigation  into draining unwanted fluids and other medical things.

 

I'm finding it very difficult to concentrate on anything for any length of time and typing on my phone ia a complete nightmare - hence this oneoff attempt using my lap-top to bring everyone up to speed. -  more than this I'm unable to do atm. 

Thanks for being patient with me, it could be quite a while before I'm capable of doing much, if anything - it's all so tiring.

Starz and Carz

 In a week where I played three gladiator combats and  was inflicted shortly thereafter  a with bug that has laid me out, drained of energy with several sleepless nights, I managed to find yet another box from Bryan's (Vampifan's) rescured ites from his collection that I haven't shown - until now!

The photograph on thie right shows the box in question, but don;t think there's anything Warhammer related in it as the photograph below shows:

 Cars, trucks and a bus, all cardboard

Sports cars and a saloon car with wrecks behind.

The bus, two vans and a pick-up truck.

Some of the larger vehicles

Taxis, a police van and an ambulance

A couple of large vans found in yet another box!

All these vehicles are extremly well made, and very, very, solid. The craftsmanship that went into these is second to none, I've  tried my hand at making card vehicles and came nowhere near the quality of these.

My three gladiator combats, using version 1.2 of Frank's rules , that I've been playtesting (with version 1.3 on its way so I'm told) were all thoughorly enjoyable affairs. The first, my Thraex versus a Hoplomatic was over in two turns with me being unable roll low dice (I think I had three double '6s' in the first bout) , whilst my opponent couldn't roll higher than '5' total, on two dice.

the photographs below show the way the contest went.

My first attacks left the opponent shield-less, with a deep wound

He recovered his shield, but lost his weapon in my second turn

A further attack left him on the arena floor asking for mercy (he failed the roll)

My opponent's sheet at the end of the bout.

The second fight with identical gladiator types went the same way as the first, lasting one and a half turns (as I went first) and in my second turn I manged an ouright kill - the firt time this has happened in the many games I've now played.

I kept my Thraex for the third game and he chose to fight as the more heavily armed Murmillo and although the game lasted  a good many more turns than the first two, the outcome was the same. My gladiator suffered a couple of light wounds whilst my opponent was a bloodied mess. In the last roll of the game he had to appeal to the crowd for his life and rolled a magnificent double '6', ensuring his survival !

A slow kill wound to his chest and with four other wounds, his was doomed.

 In case you were wondering why Starz was in the title of this post, it's merely because I've been re-watching the Starz' TV series of Spartacus !

That's it then for another week and despite the enjoyment of the games it has been a struggle getting this post done.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully there was something of interest. 

Of course, as always,  your comments are  bothe welcomed and appreciated.

Summa Rudis and Mystery Boxes

 Just in case  you're wondering what a "Summa Rudis" is (or was), he's the civilian umpiring a gladiator combat, with the iad of his stick and no doubt a stern look.

In keeping with my continued play.testing of "Blood in the Sands" and with my renewed enthusiasm for gaming I decided to convert a figure to represent this figure and for the first time this year, picked up a scalpel and paintbrush. Although he's not finished yet, I needed to show that I'm doing something hobby-related. In the photograph on the right, he's the chap in the middle (with the stick).

He started out as a HaT Celeberian light infantryman with helmet, spear, dagger and buckler.

 

Pegasus gladiator on the left alonside my gladiator

I also found my only metal gladiator, an Irregular 54mm iirc. 

Although currently he too, is only half-finished and I've shown him alonside the left-hand gladiator  for scale puproses. I think he's a tad on the small size, but still more or less compatible with other 54mms.

Scratting around the various bits of Byran's (Vampifan) collection, I'm still finding bits and piecesthat have yet to be shown.

First up is a bag of ten bases:

Rubble strewn bases (I think)

Next up are the three mystery boxes:

Boxes marked, Zombies, Dead Bodies and ...well...

Contents of the 'Zombies' box, German WW" heads and figures

Contents of the 'Dead bodies' box

Contents of the last box marked... well.,,

The last box had a strange, elf-like, Pinochio figure (2nd left above) armed with a bent pitchfork on his shoulder, whom I have no idea of what he is, save for being  peasant. The others are Germans, as is the legless chap on the right.

Not in a box, but in a bag (in a box) were the following esoteric collection of bits and pieces, mostly architectural, gargoyles and the like.

No idea who the manufacturer of these pieces is.

That's it then for another week hwere I;ll be busy re-doing new quick reference sheets for the adjusted rules and trying to find an opponent to try out the new rules (version 1.2 !)

I've already sent out two packages (one of which has arrived and I'm still awaiting payments for postages from others.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as ever, your comments are always welcomed and truly appreciated.

More Games

By games, I mean Gladiatorial games, two of which I managed to play over the bank holiday. The first game against my #1 son was an interesting game, with me, again playing a Thraex versus his Murmillo. I played most of this first game with just 5 action dice against his 6 dice but careful management of my attacks came through in the end. The second game I played against my eight year old #1 grandson (with aid from his dad) . 

Again I was able to hit my opponent, but unable to hurt him significantly. The photograph on the right shows the final turn of the combat, I'm bleeding heavily and both of us have lost an action die.

My gladiator (on the left) is a Murmillo, my opponent being a Hoplomachus who has already lost his shield.

The last two turns were very tense, I'd managed to make him lose his spear (my gladiator is standing on it) and to knock him down, against the wall of the arena. He was weapon-less and shield-less, but refused to give up. knowing that I was about to become exhausted and would lose the match. 

So with everything resting on the last turn, I had to win the initiative, hit the prone gladiator and more importantly wound him sufficiently to win the match before the loss of  fatigue  phase.  With +1 intiative as one of my traits, I won the intiative, hit him (fairly easily given he was prone) and then rolled two dice adding four to the dice roll to wound him (I was looking for a good head wound. I had to roll high as there was a -3 adjustment to my roll for his helmet. The roll was successful by a score of just one pip. we never got to the fatigue phase as the match was over immediately when he was hit. I can just imagine my gladiator falling to his knees, exhausted immediately after the final blow was made. Both games, once more, took about an hour each and were highly entertaining, especially given that we were all new to the rules. Mistakes were undoubtedly made but imo there was nothing of consequence missed.

My Murmillo's sheet at game end, two bleed tokens, two favour tokens and just two fatigue left !

My opponent's sheet with the last head wound marked.

The game went a lot quicker with my rough and read, homemade, quick reference sheets for general use and Gladiator type specific cards, showing all the common special attacks and their gladitor type specific special attacks. I had some two sided counters for the favour/disfavour counters and used some draughts as favour tokens. The bleed tokens were those I used as casualty markers for my zombie games. 

Some of the various sheets we used.

I've also dug out some columns I was  given a few years ago as the game also allows forobstacles to be placed in the arena. I don't know how practical these will be, but they are solid, heavy porcelain and might survive being used.

My arena with columns.

My feedback with the author continues apace, with me asking a myriad of questions about the rules and giving my two-penn'orth, hopefully I've been some help, even if just in aiding with the proof-reading.

 

In aother news, I've managed to find and package all the requests I 've had re Bryan's collection and I'll be visiting the post office to get rates for sending everything off, and I'll be contacting everyone involved later in the week with final details.

 

That's it then for this week, hopefully there was soemthing here of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

 Now, where's my Retiarii and secutors ?

Gladiators

So this week saw me play a game with two real people, the first time in well over a year !

To be completely honest, I didn't get to play, but I wrote notes and took photographs and helped the two players understand the game mechanics, when to throw dice etc.

The photograph on the right shows my set-up for Gladiator games, a hex marked arena. I had three matched pairs of gladiators, to fit all six types of gladiator type in the game. The photogrsaph also shows the  three pairings, a dozen dice to be used by the participants, my box of dice, counters etc. (marked by the left red arrow and the two clip board that will hold the players' character sheets *red arrow on the right).

I've had a great interest in gladiatorial combat for over forty years and haven't found a set of rules that I've liked, until now.

I have been following the blog "Adventures in Lead" and have been asked to playtest his reincarnation of his rules, that have been years in the making.

 Our first game was a disaster, I forgot or misinterpreted many of the rules (I was the only one that was meant to know the rules). However after a quick break we resumed with us all having a better idea of what we were doing.

The pair we used were a Murmillo and a Thraex, both medium types of gladiators.

They started in the centre  of the arena, but several turns later...

... both gladiators were tiring, trying to finish off the other in style.

Close up of Stupendus in the forground and Gluttenus

In the final stage the Murmillo Gluttenus manouevred Stupendus up against the arena wall and battered him with some good dice rolling. Stpendous dropped to the floor, badly wounded in the chest and exhausted. Stupendus had to appeal to the crowd...
 

Unable to fend off the Murmillo Gluttenus any longer, Stupendus falls

Haivng put up a good fight,  Stupendus appealed to the crowd and was granted a missus - he would live to fight another day !
There is a bit of paper work in the game, but far, far less than I was used to, using the old Avalin Hill game rules. The dice decided what you could do each turn, but Gladiator traits allowed for greater variations.

Gladiator record sheet and game sheet.

The author, Frank Sultana has about twenty playtesters and as seen on the LAF board, they're all seem to be actively testing. The thread on LAF started in 2013 with the first incarnation of these rules, but the last few pages deal with this second version.

The game played a bit like "What a Tanker" I guess, but has a very good 'close combat' feel.

Turn initiative is diced for every turn, players using an IGOUGO, system,  the player with initiative expending his dice then the othe rplayer does the same. There is still interaction between players as they use defence dice and other dice in the other player's turn too. 

I had a good time and the players both said they'd like to have another go, so that's as good a sign as one gets for a game. - I can't wait. 

In other news:
I'm intending to package up everyone's requests this weekend coming and  get the postage costs sorted sometime next week, so all those involved please be patient, I haven't sent a parcel in a veyr long time (I honestly can't remember ever sending a parcel).

That's it for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit and hopefully finding something of interest.
As always your comments are welcomed and truly appreciated.

Another Week, Another Box

So here's what I think is the last box from Bryan's (Vampifan's) rescued items from his vast collection.

It's a large GW box, with heavy contents (which to me meant figures) and I was not disappointed by the contents.

The box contained a small part of Bryan's zombie horde,  which iirc, had somewhere over a thousand figures - hence this is merely a small selection.

 

Here's the photographs:

Armed, unarmed, clothed and unclothed

Some larger, well-armed military types

Not quite theVillage people among these very large figures

Zombies in tar barrels (from Eureka I think)

A selection of zombiefied dogs and some sort of red critter

Some 'regular' zombie types large, small, plastic and metal.

A few large, hulk, brute or Fattie types...

...and of course the almost obligatory Dominatrix zombie and an ol' Southern boy

The whole contents of the box, there's quite a few...

...crawling, attacking, standing aimlessly, large, small, metal and plastic!

So if you want to start a horde  or add to your own, here's the perfect additions. I have well over four hundred zeds and another hundred or so unpainted so I really don'need or want these!

 

Here's what you need to do if you want these or any of the other figures/scenery I 've shown on my posts over the last few weeks:

1.Give a good reference to the post you've seen and what you would like - reference by photograph if it's not obvious to me (number the photos top to bottom if it helps).

2.If you would like several things from different posts, put them in some sort of preference order (in case two or more followers would like the same items)

3.Tell me how you would like them posted to you, courier, 1st class parcel 2nd class, registered posts etc. and of course include your address.

4.Whilst I'm not asking any cash for these, I would like to be reimbursed for postage by Paypal and I'll reply with details of my Paypal account.

I'll try and give an estimate of how much the postage will be. (I have no idea currently of postage charges, and I can't even recall the last time I sent any parcel - or letter for that matter).

I have a lot of bubble-wrap and boxes so currently don't envisage asking for packaging expenses.

5.Also note that I don't really wish to split up any of the obvious sets that are around, but I am willing to do so in some cases, I'd mch rather be posting out a set of things rather than single figures, but agan I will see if it's possible - just don't ask for a particular zombie from this week's post !

6.Please keep all queries etc to email and not as comments on my blog out of respect of the subject matter.

My email address can be found on my profile page.

I hope that the above is clear and don't be alarmed if I don't reply immediately as I'd like to give time for every one of my followers to relieve my storage  of this huge collection!

 

That's it then for another week, hopefully you wwere in as much astonishment as I was by this small portion of Bryan's zombie horde, the majority of whom I can't identify their manufacturer.

As always your comments are  as welcomed and appreciated as ever.