Operation Clear-out

As I alluded to at the start of the year, I am planning on sorting out some of my collection. After 10+ years of collecting things have reached breaking point. I only have a small sample of my collection in my current house but even that is taking up too much room. With two kids running around there is not a lot of free space and so I must sort things out.

I have a nice box which I plan to fit everything into, including paints, cases etc. The only exception to this is my Rulebooks, which sit on the book case and anything I am planning on selling. The theory is that if something doesn’t fit in the box it has to go. This has made me become inventive in the way I pack things. I have found that Sprues have can broken down into chunks, boxes can be collapsed and you can fit a lot more models into a space if they are lose in a bag rather then sitting together in a box.

As you can imagine all this sorting out has highlighted a lot of stuff that has to go. Some of it I don’t want to lose but I havent used them in so long. One of the things that I have selected for sle is my Preatorians! They are something I never thought I would get rid off but after 6 or 8 years of sitting there it is time to let go and give somebody else the chance to collect them.

The first thing on my list to do is sort out all the sprues I have lying around. I reckon that if I cut them up and place the bits in little bags then they will take up a lot less room in my box.

What does it take to run a Blood Bowl League?

That’s a question I had to ask myself the other week. As well documented in this blog I have always been a fan of Blood Bowl yet never had the chance to participate in a full-on league environment. After a few one-off games at the local club I found a games who was as much into Blood Bowl as me! Suddenly I found myself as the Commissioner of a Blood Bowl league just like that!

With only a week to prepare I decided on an open format. This meant that if anybody wanted to join after we had begun, or anybody wanted to drop out then there would not be to many problems. Plus with Christmas fast approaching (well it was then) most people would be missing for a few weeks so organising a fixed schedule would be next to impossible.

To make things fair for the people who would not be able to play regularly we decided to work out the teams league points by dividing the points earned by the number of games played. The only disadvantage of this was that if somebody only played one games and won then they would sit at the top of the league until somebody got a better Touch Down average then them. To get around this we decided that a team had zero points until they played at least two games.

So after a quick lunch break typing all the rules up we began. With only four teams things could have gotten repetitive quickly but as it turns out I got really lucky and got a good set of gamers who are always fun to play against.

I started work on building a league tracking system using PHP back in November as our main website but as always real life raised its ugly head. I started to miss a few games and it looked like I would not be back for a while. Fortunately for me Alex stepped up and took over. He created us a lovely website and is now writing all our newsletters. Without him the league might have stumbled but it carries on to this day.

We are now 2 months in and fast approaching the end of the Open Season. Soon we will begin the playoffs to decide the HDWSBBL Champion. Now that everything is more settled at home I can hopefully turn up for a few matches and Guide Ragnar’s Swift Velocity to the Championship.

After that who knows, Hopefully we will attract a few more players next time and run in a fixed window. One thing for sure is that I will no underestimate the amount of work required in running a Blood Bowl League!

Talisman is returning!

Wow, great news for me. Talisman is returning. Talisman was one of the first games I ever played and it is still one of my favourites. Somewhere at my parents I still poses my battered old copy with its badly painted miniatures. I am looking forward to playing this new edition when it is released in October.

 I does mean a new trend is developing though. First Forge World release their own game and now Black Industries. Does this mean that more of Games Workshops sub-companies will release more targeted games. Maybe this will mean the return of Warhammer Quest or even Space Hulk. Maybe Forge World will even take over some of the specialist games range. I would love them to produce some Blood Bowl models!

New year resolutions 2007

So I thought that a first good entry around here would be my aims for the next year, Last year started off well with good intentions but I got distracted a lot during the second half as by real life got hectic! So in 2007 I plan too:

Finish my Hexalon XVI Imperial Guard Army.

I had aimed for May last year but I have since overshot by 7-8 months! This year I intend to finish them off, or at least finish 1500 points worth

Sort out my collection!

Increasing pressure at home means that my space that I store all my stuff is getting smaller and smaller. This means that I will more then likely have to sell off some stuff. It looks like I will be getting rid of my Eldar army and my Praetorians!

Finish my Blood Bowl Team.

They are almost there, just got to base them. In the distance I plan to replace them with a new team but depending on how well the above point goes I may have to cancel that plan.

Enter the Blood Bowl Tournament.

This year I am determined to enter the big tournament in May. I have been saying I will do it for a while now and this year is the time I will actually do it. I may try and rope in some of the players from the local gaming group so I don’t go alone.

Collect a small air force for Auronautica Imperialis.

Yep, no matter what happens I will succumb to the temptation and collect a small force (6 planes) for Forge Worlds new game. Just don’t tell the Wife!

Spend more time painting.

I started off good last year but as the year progressed building a Blood Bowl League tracker on my Computer sidetracked me. As that is almost finished I will divert my energy into painting.

Encourage more feedback.

I know there are a few of you out there because I get the stats. I plan to try to encourage you to comment once or twice a year, even if it is to harass me!

That’s all I can think of for the time being. Hopefully this will be a good year for my hobby. In 2006 I got the taste of it back so this year I will hopefully expand upon that.

Happy new year

Happy new year everybody. May the new year bring you all the best luck.