1st Annual Rememberance Day Gaming Afternoon

With Rememberance Day being generally a solemn day as I reflect on friends & buddies whom I served with while in the military, I have decided that the afternoon should be spent with new friends over a friendly historical simulation of sorts.

Last year we had the good fortune of having Dave run a WW1 scenario at Chaos Gaming. This year I decided to coincide the launch of my new gaming space with what I hope will become an annual venue.

The first batch of the fellows to arrive were Jonathon, Chen, Scott & Jason (whom was kind enough to bring his 15mm WW2 miniatures). Later arrivals were Bruce and Dennis.

Jason gave us an introduction to the new Too Fat Lardies "I Ain't Been Shot Mum v3" pitting Americans vs Germans in a battle over a Chateau.

Quick lessons learned from this battle. 1 -  Once your caught in the open by a MG your buggered.
2 - When you send a Dummy Blind off to a flank, don't be surprised when the recce patrol finds some wine & pretty much stays where it was.

It became quite a bottleneck for the Americans as all the units were forced to enter on the road right smack dab into a German MG fire lane. After one platoon was decimated the rest hunkered down behind a hedgerow.

Of note was that Scott seems to have dodged his bad dice by leaving the city & travelling North beyond Edmontons limits....Not to worry though, I am sure they will be happily awaiting his return to his normal haunts.

Thanks to all who came to launch the room. You can expect more invites to come out & enjoy an afternoon's gaming.

Games Room Update

It's been some time since my last post, but that is due to a trip to Calgary for Fallcon and continued renovations to the games room.  This post deals with the completion of my games table.

Several months ago I happened upon a store closing in Morinville. Of note was that they were selling their gondola shelving units. After deliberating for about 2 minutes I made a purchase of 2 - 4' units.
My thoughts on buying them were that I could use my current ping-pong table top & mount it on the top of the shelving units, thus providing me with storage shelves beneath.

Until this weekend they have sat dismantled in the garage, taking up valuable space, especially with winter coming on. This weekend they were taken down into the basement & construction began

The posts had to be cut down a bit, which meant in turn the pegboard backings did as well....so much for a clean floor.  I positioned the carpet it was going to be placed on & made sure that it was centred so that people could walk around the table.

The table itself is higher than normal, as I didn't want to forfeit much shelf space, which means its pretty much standing only...which is fine be me as I find  many of those I game with tend to stand during miniature games anyway.

This image shows the base with the "kickboards" mounted & the final piece of pegboard waiting to be cut & mounted.

This is the final product. All that remains is fixing the 2 boards together so they don't slide apart and then painting them. I will probably drive a couple small bolts thru to affix the top to the base as well. Lastly, I need to start finding all my terrain pieces & getting the shelves loaded.

So after completing this, I discovered that I have another set of the gondola shelving that will create an identical base, should someone desire to create a similar table, I could be persuaded to sell it, as its slated to be moved into the crawlspace otherwise.

The other end of the basement is now a nightmare again with boxes, so that will be my next task as I try to get the games room ready by Rememberance Day with the intent of having some of the fellows over to launch it.





Buy of the Day at Gibbons Town Wide Garage Sale

Today was the garage sale day I look forward to most each year. Not only for the sheer number of participants, but for the Kubasa with sauteed onions & Sauerkraut.

This years buy of the day goes to a box of what at first appeared as some GW LOTR figures. With a War Mumak right on top it was a no brainer. I saw the price on the lid of the box to read $5.

At first I thought it meant whatever was in the box was $5.00 per item. Was I surprised at the answer!

So looking in the box I saw the War Mumak, a box of Easterlings, a box of 40K Space Marines & what appeared to be some plastic 1/72nd scale Greek Infantry.  Fair enough. I snagged the box and a couple other things from this vendor. I then had to haul it back to where I parked the car to offload it.


Once I arrived home I delved further

The box of  Chaos Marines were merely mostly empty sprues, but there were some bits and a full sprue of Chaos appendages, always good for modding possessed in Mordheim.

Delving further...

Under the box of loose Greek Infantry can be seen some books. They appear at this stage pretty beat up, but we shall see.

Checking out the Easterlings box, I find one complete sprue of troops. So where are the others? The plot thickens

Hey now! Whats this I see under those tatty books?

Here we have the full Monty. Everything that was in that $5.00 box.

The complete list (without removing the figures from the ziplock bag or out of the plastic blisters;

LOTR Weapons & Warfare - Rough shape, but this will be a good copy to use as my painting guide.
White Dwarf WD277 - Also in pretty rough shape.
LOTR Siege of Gondor - Good Condition w/ retail sticker price of $18.00
LOTR Scouring of the Shire - Good Condition w/ retail sticker price of $20.00
LOTR A Shadow in the East - Good Condition w/ retail sticker price of $20.00
LOTR Return of the King - pretty sure this is the book that came with the boxset.
05-94 Easterlings blister
06-34 Army of the Dead (Metal)
Plastic bubble containing metal Warg Riders, Riders of Rohan, Easterlings & Mordor Troll.
The War Mumak
Box of Chaos Space Marines - well their bits anyway.
Large ziplock bag of mixed LOTR miniatures, and chaos space marines.
Some GW LOTR terrain pieces
09-06 Easterlings Box w/ 1 sprue - assume the remainder are in that ziplock bag
1/72nd M3 LEE Mk 1 model kit - inside box the model is still in plastic
1/72nd Greek Infantry Hoplites - not sure at this point if its complete.

So apart from a couple other gaming related items I purchased, this was by far the best haul of the day! It also ends the townwide garage sale season for this year.

The Dream becomes realized

Well here we are, my first post.

For many years, like so many other gamers, I have sought the opportunity to build the "Ultimate" Gaming space. A place where a game could remain on the table to conclude at another time, a place where friends could gather (road trip), converse and battle over a beer and bad dice roll. In a nut-shell, "My Place"

  Well that dream is becoming a reality. Though its taken over a year ( lots of breaks) the basement is being transformed. Attempting to do most of the work myself and with the overwhelming assistance of my co-worker Terry, we are past the hurdle and see the end in sight. Of course all of this would not be possible if it wasn't for the support of my lovely wife.

As can be seen, this portion of the basement has the ceiling and floor completed. Now its just a matter of time to sort thru all this clutter of shelves and other furnishings to make sense of it all....yes there is a master plan.



 As to this half of the basement. Well its just a matter of time. This is the area the game table will be located.

I will try to remember to take more photos as the progression continues and post them as I can.

Thanks for taking the time.