Uncharted Seas Tournament

The Iron Tankard

The Shroud Mages won the Thanaris Cup last year. This year the competition is for the Iron Tankard, a truly epic proportioned trophy. Who will win this years event? Which nation will come out on top. So admirals assemble your ships and prepare to do battle royal for this 1 Day, 3 Round Event.

Ticket Price:$15 (This includes the price of entry for the Blind Pig)

Location: Blind Pig Games Club – The Finnish Hall, 62 Newnham Road, Mount Gravatt, QLD, 4122

Date: Saturday October 1 2011
9:45am – Arrival, Introductions
Round 1: 10:00am – 11:30am
Round 2: 11:45am – 1:15pm
Lunch: 1:15am – 1:45pm
Round 3: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Round Up and Presentation: 3:30pm – 4:00pm

This one day event is to be seen as a series of fun engagements where winning or losing has no ultimate bearing on prizes being offered. The prize pool will be distributed by random draw on the day. The reasoning for this is to encourage players to participate in an accommodating and enjoyable experience. It is hoped that this will occur.

Each Round will use the following scenario.

Fleet Size 700 points

Turn Up and Fight

Games are played on 4’ (deep) x3’ (wide) tables. Players dice for choice of table edge, highest roll chooses. Terrain will be fixed on each table; there will be no need to place terrain. Once table edge has been determined, players will dice again; the highest roller will select one squadron at a time and deploy it with the players alternating until ALL squadrons are on the table.

The deployment area is between 12”-16” from their baseline and 4” in from either side.

Objective: Destroy the Enemy!

Time Limit: 1hr 30min

Victory Points: Calculated as per the Victory Points Table on page 47 of rulebook.

Game Points: 4 Points for a Crushing Victory. 2 Points for a Minor Victory. 1 Point for a Draw.

AWARDS
Master of the Fleets – 1st Place.
Master Shipwright – Best Presented Fleet
Bosun – Sportsmanship
Rear Admiral – Last Place.
Best “Captains” Hat (awarded to the player with the best “sailor’s” hat on the day)

So distracted....

Yep, it's pension day. I have a staggering $60 to spend, and I'm torn between what I can spend it on. QBD will give me free postage if I spend $60, so that another 6 books I could add to the library. I need some more bases for my figures, namely Hell Dorado. Although why considering my lack of painting. I even thought about expanding my Westerners for Hell Dorado. Then there is MERCS, and I'm thinking of Kemvar or FCC, although that doesn't allow me postage if I go the lot. Hmm, hang on I need the cards as well. So maybe what I need to do is save my cash until next fortnight and get more bang for my buck. Yet, what have I got to do for this fortnight then....

Dana my daughter is home sick, and it's nice to have her around. It seems to be only when her mother is in the same house that the world goes to hell in a bread basket. Well, I love my children, for all their faults and problems. It's what being a parent is all about. My parents didn't pay much attention to me as a child (I was treated as one up till the day they died), and I have the scars to prove it. I made the choice to give my children the emotional support they need, not the pragmatic crap that was the 60's/70's mantra. Ultimately my children have to make the decisions for themselves, all I can do is be there to support them - whether the good or the bad.

I received a blue care package today from Luke. This cheered me up, and then I realised that I would have to clear my game table to assemble the Terraclips. I've had a look at the buildings box, punched out the tiles and will eventually have to clear some space to start experimenting. I'm thinking I may very well set up the table and leave it set that way. Most of the games I play are skirmsih level now, not that I actually have any games at my residence any more.

Some Hordes figures were also included as well as the first two lemure packs for Hell Dorado. I rather like the lemures. Yet I need some hoopy bases for them to go on. Will have to have a think about that.

I've started (as it's a mundane job and doesn't require a lot of effort) typing up the character sheets for the Saracen's of Hell Dorado. I admitt that it is teaching me what the characters can do. I think that I shall enjoy this game in the weeks to come - when I can get a game.

Anima Tactics has caught my attention - well the rulebook has. I have about a dozen figures on the table, but I'm finding that the level of detail on the figures is going to be a stumbling block for me while I continue to search for inspiration.

I'm reading three novels at the moment, that's how fragmented I am. A Simon R Green, Rex Stout and Andrew Garve books. This is as well as my evening rulebook read, which consists of day dreaming over the painted figures (in the books) and picking random pages and reading the contents of that page.

So children, beware the mad man, it may just be me.

I am invisible

To be invisible. To write and not be read. To speak and not be heard. To be seen and not acknowledged. That is to be invisible.

Where is my enthusiasm?

I seem to be at a loss. I cannot find the enthusiasm to get back to my 8 hour a day painting schedule. I want to - but the moment I sit down and look at what's on the table I just feel a lot of nothing. No inspiration, no love of my talent to spur me on to greatness.

I am wondering if it's all the upcoming medical visits that has put me in this frame of mind. September I am off to have the doctors look at my marvelously sculpted flesh, and then to have either cut out or seared flesh removed. My last lot removed proved to be problematic and were nicked in the bud early enough not to warrant any alarm. Now I am not so sure.

My doctors seem to no longer provide me with any treatment. I am a lost cause, not that that doesn't stop them from seeing me and taking my or more precisely the governments money.

I am angry with the world at large. I am fallen and can find no succour. I watch the world drift by wishing that I was able to in some small way intereact with it. I always muse to myself when people ask me about my health. I always think that neither heaven nor hell wish for me to arrive, which is why I am destined to remain on this earth. I wonder whether hell will be a paradise compared to the hell which I name earth. There is nothing worse than outliving your world.

So as you can all tell, I am in a really cracking good cheer.

I am angry with the way my family is treated. Parents are now discouraging their children from socialising with my children. They see my children as a threat to their own childrens academic success. More importantly they fear my childrens rebel ways. It pains me when I consider how generous I have been with the other children, some I have known for 10 years.

Well I'm off, my wife Chelle has appeared and is demanding to be taken to the shops. Now to find a book to read while this all happens.

Blind Pig 20th August Meet

I attended the Blind Pig yesterday. I had three games, all of them different.

1. Hell Dorado
I took my Saracens against James' Daemons. I lost, nothing new for me.
I think a few more games of this will be needed to iron out some of the rules, but I like the system. It's simple, but with enough complexity to make it interesting. I personally like the Saracen models, although I have ideological problems with who they are. So I may in the end trade them, or even give them away when I build up my Immortals and Westerners.

2. MERCS
My first game of MERCS. I played against Simon and his CCC. I lost, I seem to be making this a standing habit. Again, a simple rule set. I like the models. A cheap game for those who are interested in value for money. I shall enjoy more games of this in the coming months. I had a good teacher in Simon, who is I think one of the better (if not best) teachers of game systems I have yet to meet.

3. Anima Tactics
Another first game system. I played against Alan. I won. Though in my defense I must state that I was using someone else's figures. It was my first time at playing Anima and I now have a taste for it. Damn. I really need to pick up my game and start painting in earnest. Thanks to Simon who taught Alan and I how to play the game. It's great when you find someone who is prepared to introduce you to what I think is a good game.

I spent the time there chatting with a lot of the other attendees.

I will bring my Magic in the future to entertain Ella.

So I'm sitting here, trying to find my mojo. I'm watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to while away the hours.

The end of another week.....

Well another week has come and gone. Nothing has been achieved of any great significence. I pottered about with painting some figures, but nothing I'm really happy with. I just can't find my focus - and it's really becoming an issue with me.

I did find that QBD has an online store and I can pick up most of the books I'm after for under $10 a piece. So I intend to stock up on Simon R Green, Kat Richardson, and Thomas E Sniegoski. I must check to see what books I'm also missing from the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher.

Tomorrow is Blind Pig club day. Hoping to enjoy a few games, but more importantly catching up with people. Just wish I didn't have to wait a fortnight to see everyone, or even have a game.

So I'm sitting here with a half dozen bottles of Bulmer's Original Cider, enjoying it immensely.

Watched a show on cable today called Hercules Returns, a wonderful 1993 parody. Think of voice-overs of the oriental movies, but with an Australia twist. I must acquire this movie. Well worth it. Laughed like I haven't in ages.

My good feeling for the week: shopping with my daughter, sharing her life and enjoying her company. I love you Lady Dana Caitlin McDonnell.

The start of another weekend...

It's the start of another weekend.

Life is depressing.

Pottering around without focus.

Will try and pick up a paint brush today and see what I may be able to achieve. My biggest problem is that if I force myself to paint, I am never happy with the end results. Like all true artists I have to be in the right place to be able to turn out acceptable pieces of art.

It's interesting. I recall reading an article in some psychology magazine (I read these when I'm in treatment or hospital) that the artistic or "sensitives" are more prone to mental illness than any other. I guess that being both has it price to pay.

So I'm home alone, again. Even in the home with three other people, you can still be all alone.

I did some remodeling and moved my boardgames out from the room that suffers flooding during heavy rain. I'm sitting here looking at Talisman, thinking how much fun I had in the 80's playing this game. Now it sits on the shelf taunting me.

I can sympathise with my grandfather now. It was very lonely (of sorts) for him. He outlived all his friends. In the end, while he still had my family to support him and a few neighbours, you could tell how sad he was. I find I'm in a similar situation.

I talk to myself.

It's hard to get a book when you want one!

I have been reading a lot of books of late. Don't know why. Sometimes I can go months without picking up a novel, other times I read and read and read.

I'm very partial to Simon R. Green and his Nightside novels at present.

It's bloody difficult at present to find a bookshop that stocks a decent range of books. Since Borders went belly up and isn't at Garden City my book prospects are very thin. I went looking in QBD hoping to find him but didn't. I found one author I was after - Kat Richardson in the Vampire section although on closer inspection I think it's supposed to be the supernatural novel section.

Popped into the second hand bookshop, raided his shelves in the vain hope of more Green, but no luck. What I did lash out for was a stack of Andrew Garve detective novels. At $2.50 a novel it was a steal.

I really need to find myself a reliable online store to meet my reading needs.

Hell Dorado what I've read so far...

Picked up Hell Dorado last meet and have been slowly reading the rules as time permits. I like the system, well - the parts that I have up to. It took me a while to work out how the ranged combat worked. I was looking for ranges and found them on the lines associated with the damage chart. Silly place to put, as I was wondering why with 3 hits I had Range 10. So as I said I'm slowly reading the rules and think that the game has a lot of potential.

The miniatures are lovely. I have invested in the Saracens and Immortals as my starting two factions. I do have the other starter sets for Demons and Westerners, but may only go with Demons if I decide to delve deeper into the game. I gave my box of The Lost to John Ross, maybe I can get him into a quick game in the morning before the club days warm up.

Back to the models. They are very delicate and in some cases containing lots of parts to assemble. The Cheng Xiao-Chen model has a lot of parts and it was difficult to stick the whole lot together. However in the long run the models are nice and I just hope that I will be able to paint them to a standard I am happy with.

MERCS the game so far...

Well I got my copy of MERCS today. It's a rather nice production, glossy and all.

What didn't I like. The fact that there is no game data for the MERCS factions. I wanted to compare the factions and the models to see which ones would appeal to me. There were none. You have to buy the cards as a set for all the information. No they don't include the card with the miniature.

So I'll give the game a go. It looks interesting if extremely limiting. I'm not sure that I like the card system. Clearly an investment in some 2D game mats might be in order, assuming I can find a supplier that well send them to me at a reasonable rate. Be nice if you could order them through some online printing business and pick them up here from an outlet, but hey that would be too helpful.

So I'm going to order the USCR as my second faction and leave it at that. If the game proves entertaining I may then lash out and get some others. Time will tell.

My relationship with the Blind Pig

It has come to my attention that some people think I have some controlling interest with the Blind Pig. This is not the case.

The Blind Pig is run by Bec and Paul.

I may run tournaments and do my damnest to promote the Blind Pig, but I am not a person who calls the shots there.

if you have been labouring under this misunderstanding then please make note.

I am a just a person who goes to the Blind Pig to have some games and enjoy the company of others.

Why do I bother?

I wonder sometimes, why do I bothers?

As some people know I am ill, apart from the physical I also suffer from the mental as well.

At present I'm really, really depressed.

1. I feel that I talk to brick walls a lot. I talk to myself all the times now, I do this because at least I know that someone is at least listening to me - even if it is only me.

2. I feel that I am only tolerated at the best of times.

Do you know what really sucks. My wife and I have no friends. Actually, that's not strictly true but it does link into the above statement. Chelle and I have never been able to go out of an evening and enjoy a night together. Never. The children are now old enough to be left on their own, but we have never been able to do that prior.

3. People make promises to me, and then forget. Be it my family or people. See point 2.

4. No one will employ my wife, even though she is willing to work, unlike so many other unemployed. Because you are over 30, not stunningly beautiful or educated (or connected) you are excluded.

5. My children have no desire to study or improve themselves. Life is just one constant holiday for them. Because they don't perform well at school they are labled as "dumb" and are taunted and ostracised by many.

Anyway why am I writing all this. I don't know, maybe because I like to talk to myself.

Each day for me is a struggle. When I wake up each day it's with the thoughts "why am I still alive" and "what is the point of my existence?". Death quite clearly can't come soon enough for me. I was brought up a Roman Catholic and had it drummed into me that God rewards those who do the right thing. Clearly I'm not doing the right thing by His judgement and must continue to suffer in the world of a living Hell.

I suffer from depression.

Blind Pig Club Meet 6th August Part 2

Blind Pig Meeting 6 August 2011