Vietnam Wargaming

Many years ago an old friend of mine was keen on wargaming the Vietnam conflict.  Many were the games enjoyed by many, with the old villager (or was he VC) and his cook wandering around the game table.

I have been bouncing from genre to genre recently, just looking to paint something different.  To finish off or start projects.  Below are my NVA and VC I have painted to date.  Still a few more to go, but as usual I have been tempted with another project.  Hopefully I can finish the Vietnam project before I wander off again to greener pastures.

NVA Section.

NVA Platoon.  Minatures from West Wind.

Half a VC Platoon.  Miniatures from West Wind.

Life struggles on.

Struggling with mental illness, a continuing story.

It has been a while since I wrote about my illness and how it affects my life.  So, how have things been going?

It is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, sideway swings and dead stops.  I have been fairly stable, except for one brief period where I was delivered news that stunned me, and brought on a period of crisis which thankfully was passed.

It does not take much for a person in my condition to be tipped into a pit of despair, with thoughts of suicide coming to the fore.  I constantly battle with suppressing suicidal thoughts, with far too much of my time devoted to erasing them from conscious thought.  Not an easy task when life has been hardly fair in dishing out its favour.  I have to almost constantly have some form of distraction running in the background to hide from myself the fact that ending my life is more attractive than fighting to live in a world that no longer resembles the one in which I grew up in or one which shares even a vague resemblance to my viewpoint.

Unlike many who are afflicted with mental illness I don't display typical attributes associated with it.  I am articulate, possessing humour and generally look after my appearance.  The effort I have spent hiding my condition is such that some believe that my condition is fabricated, or even cured. This is not the case - my struggle to find a life free of the debilitating effects in constant.  Though I feel I am loosing the struggle due to people.

My largest hurdle in life is people.  How people treat me and how I perceive being treated by people.  This is the greatest threat to my well being.  While I can show a face to the world that seems impervious it is far from so. My automatic response to adverse conditions is to withdraw to the safety of my home.  This is interpreted by others in many ways - sulking, dummy spit, and the list goes on.  Think what you like but my need to withdraw to an environment that does not inflict mental anguish is paramount, you may not see it but the pain is very real.

The problem is that people are not understanding.  They are judgemental and uncaring in their expression of opinion of a person's actions and suffering.  I know, I hear and your opinions do nothing towards allowing me to enter into social interaction with enough confidence to live a normal life (whatever that might be).

So I will continue to struggle with the perceptions of others (clouded by my own coloured vision).  I continue to spend the majority of my time as a recluse.  I continue to be failed by those who are supposed to support me.  There is no light at the end of the tunnel, only that tiny pin prick of luminosity that could be explained as a source of hope.

More "Things that go bump in the night"

Things that go bump in the night. Frankenstein.

I'm in the mood for gothic horror at present.  This is the second box I've painted up in a day.  The loss of my painting lamp & magnifier did stop for almost a week, but with my limited genius I have a working replacement and I can get back to what I like doing - painting models.

Blind Pig 1st August Club Meet

Thanks everyone for turning up today.

A smaller turn out, but still lots happening.

Games in play today were:

Dreadball Extreme
Suburbia
Samurai Spirit
40K
Cold War Commander
Star Wars Armada

Sadly no photo's of today, I was too caught up in playing Suburbia to take some photo's.

That being said I will share my happiness with playing the following games today.

From BGG:

Plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis. Use hex-shaped building tiles to add residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby towns. Your goal is to have your borough thrive and end up with a greater population than any of your opponents.

Suburbia is a tile-laying game in which each player tries to build up an economic engine and infrastructure that will be initially self-sufficient, and eventually become both profitable and encourage population growth. As your town grows, you'll modify both your income and your reputation. As your income increases, you'll have more cash on hand to purchase better and more valuable buildings, such as an international airport or a high rise office building. As your reputation increases, you'll gain more and more population (and the winner at the end of the game is the player with the largest population).

During each game, players compete for several unique goals that offer an additional population boost – and the buildings available in each game vary, so you'll never play the same game twice!

Suburbia_Rules_1-1.pdf

BP Day:
I played two games of this today.  The other who played enjoyed the game so much that there was no refusal to play another game straight away.  I even think we'd have gone to a third game, but opted to play another - which was going to be a zombie game (whose title I've forgotten).  Second game we added an expansion which made the game even more interesting.  Thanks James for bringing this along (we even got to do a group punching of the board game pieces!).

From BGG:

You and your fellow samurai companions are the only standing obstacle between one frightened village and a full horde of blood-thirsty villains. The fight seems unfair as the seven of you might not seem to measure up to the dozens of enemies who want to slice you to pieces — but this comparison doesn't take into account your strong combat skills and an efficient team spirit that binds your samurai squad enough to face the threat. Above all else, when everything seems desperate and lost, your enemies will discover that inside each of you lies a true beast, a warrior spirit ready to unleash its full power!

Samurai Spirit is a co-operative game in which each player is a fierce samurai defending a village surrounded by a horde of bandits. The game plays out over three turns during which each player takes turns drawing bandit cards, then choosing whether they want to fight the bandit, defend the village, or let the bandit pass in order to help the other samurai.

The challenge of the game consists of balancing your choices: Should you fight each enemy to quickly reach your beast capacities, while also coming closer to the death and risking further loss by not defending the village sufficiently? Should you mainly defend or help the other samurai, taking the risk of remaining human too long and therefore weaker, when you know that weakness will be a major problem when facing the lieutenant and the villain bosses? Each enemy presents a tough choice to you, your team, and ultimately the whole village! Each turn ends with farms and fences being destroyed, and since those aren't unlimited, you must do what's necessary to end the game with at least one undamaged farm and enough farmers to tend it. Do you have what it takes to stand against evil and become a true hero?

Fight with courage, smartly assist your teammates, defend the poor villagers, turn into a savage beast, and wreak havoc on the enemy lines — all of this is up to you! Ultimately it would be your honor to chose to die in a ultimate sacrifice in order to save the village. All of this is what makes the true samurai spirit!

SMS_rules_US_LD.pdf

BP Day:
Only one game played but it was interesting.  Cooperative play.  The icons and such were the most dificult to grasp, but the game play once understood flowed well.  I look forward to a few more games of this.  Will add this to my game shelf.  Played with 6 players (max seven).