Hanging on the ceiling of my new barbers, measuring nearly 10′ x 5′ is Gericault’s painting of “the Charging Chasseur”. I remember being blown away by the original in the Louvre as its scale is basically 1 to 1 and it just dominates the wall on which it is hung.

So while wargaming has taken the backburner as COVID restrictions start to ease here and all those social interactions and chores that were delayed are now having to be done, this was a great reminder that, firstly, I have chosen a great barber, and secondly, I need to get a move on with some of my WIP, the “leadpile”, and building a table for actual gaming.

Hope you are all making more my progress than I am?

PS: I passed 1000 page views sometime last week. Not sure if that’s regarded as a milestone, but it was nice to see the counter tick to 4 digits.

The Kings Shropshire Light Infantry was founded on this day in 1881. The regiment was an amalgamation of the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot and the 85th (King’s Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot, and apart from forming 1/4 of the later formed “Light Infantry”, was also the regiment of my father.

Although he was born in Torquay, my father spent much of his formative, and post war years, living on N.Castle St in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. And were it not for the immigration of his family to Australia in 1960, he used to tell me he would have continued with his military service and how different his, and by extension my life would have been. Without delving too far into family history, in short, dad resigned his commission to emigrate with his parents and sister rather than be left alone in the UK.

The “old man” turned 80 this year, and failing eyesight and Parkinson’s not withstanding has always been a keen supporter of my interest in both Military History and Wargaming, always eager to see what I have painted, or what I have been designing and 3D printing, I think his support sprung from both his interest in things “army” and of his own interest in model railways, he always being particularly keen to see what terrain I have made.

He has, and continues to be my most ardent fan. (well maybe apart from mum*)

So in some ways all this malarky is partly his fault, though I think it’s a blame he would gladly shoulder, and grin cheekily while doing so.

* sorry to my readers from the USA…it’s how we spell it in the Commonwealth. (You know…the yoke you threw off while keeping their antiquated measuring system, while the rest of the world embrace the French loved decimal system. hehe)

I am not someone who usually pigeonholes war gamers into the Historical and/or Warhammer buckets*, since I am not old enough to really be a grognard of the old school, nor am I young enough that my pathway into the hobby was solely through Nottingham. Rather I came to hobby from RPG’s, chiefly D&D, after two of my High School History/English teachers led a few friends through the classics of Fantasy Literature, to D&D and then into 1/72 plastic Napoleonics, the loop back to fantasy armies happened a bit later with Fantasy Warriors box set, rather than the Warhammer route, though I did play Warhammer Role-play, and was familiar with their products from the time I purchased White Dwarf and it was not a simple “in house advertisement” but rather a general RPG magazine devoted to the entire hobby in general.

I mention this as way of a little background, since I came to a realisation the other day, that was not bought on by COVID grouping restrictions or such, but rather through the simple act of rearranging my figure cabinets to accommodate more figures, or rather accommodate them in a more logical and space efficient manner, I am in danger of becoming a collector rather than a gamer, and I am not sure how I feel about this?

And while there is nothing wrong with being a collector, and some of the blogs I follow fall pretty comfortably into the “painter and collector” basket, I have always thought of myself as a war gamer…so with that in mind I turned towards finding “real life” opponents…and yes, current COVID restrictions on meeting make this even more challenging, not to mention that scale, period, and to be honest likability** of one’s opponents all contribute to the experience that makes up the hobby.

So this will mean dipping my toe a little deeper back into the Fantasy/Sci Fi bucket of Wargaming, as it seems to be one of the preferred gaming periods in Singapore, apart from Flames of War, but I really have a too large collection in 20mm for WW2 for me to contemplate getting into 15mm as well, and I have never really embraced the rules philosophy of FoW, though I have tried a few times.

Also given that my regular D&D group also has an AoS “fanatic” in its core group, I have an easy opponent in the offering, and one who understands that showing up with “beer and snacks” is almost more important as showing up with an army, painted or not.

* I tend to believe if you move figures around a simulated battlefield, roll dice and consult modifier charts to determine success and failure, then it is a war game. Any negative talk of one side of the hobby or the other only brings the collective whole down rather than lifting it up. My 1.5 cents.

** A number of years ago I found an opponent who seemed to “fit the bill”, they had an interest in Wargaming, even going so far to have a professional job relating to it. But after 3-4 games I found that the experience with them was not the fun experience I was looking for, and I simply stopped inviting them over to game. Ok, in truth it was not fun because they broke the first rule of social gaming: “Bring Snacks”. Meaning they were happy to come and game on my table with my figures, while being equally as happy to eat my snacks, and drink my beer, never once supplying a polite contribution.

So remember to bring snacks…or even amber beverages.