A Slow Weekend...

Under the current circumstances, I am finding it more difficult to get anything hobby related done than I had hoped.  However, I am stress-baking like everyone else, so at least we have nice bread.

My neighbor gave me a sourdough starter on Friday, so I am experimenting with a loaf today...it smells good, at least.

Bread baking results

I was politely asked to clean up my hobby space a bit, and one of the things cluttering the floor was my ready supply of bases.  I took the opportunity to replenish from the reserve stocks, so my bases are now neatly organized (and restored to their designated “place”) and merely need a few soldiers:

The Really Useful Box company sells the organizer trays; two will fit in a 4-liter box, and I have 60x60, 60x40, 60x30, and 60x20 bases and their flexible steel bottoms ready to go, as well as several sizes of round bases and a few specialty things like the 25x50mm cavalry lozenge bases in the bottom right pocket in the second picture.

Even if I haven’t been painting, I did find time for a game.  I mentioned that my brother and I had a Chaos Wars intro scenario on off at Cincycon last month.  Unfortunately, it had some balance issues, and we discovered that one side (the elves) would find it nearly impossible to win if the other side (the orcs/goblins) played a reasonable game and paid attention to their objectives.  We wondered, in retrospect, whether the basic forces were at all balanced.  So, my brother set up the two armies for an open field battle.  I took the elves, who had lost consistently during the demo games.  We played via Facetime, so all I have for pictures are some screen captures.

Here, as the armies advance to contact, the elves attempt to maintain a solid formation, and hope to use their bows to maximum advantage.

After some elvish dancing about, firing and falling back, etc., the elves were doing pretty well.  

As the orcish casualties mounted, the situation grew ever more dire.  At the end, only one elven unit (some horse archers barely discernible at the lower right) was routed, and the goblins had but a single relatively intact unit.  As it was a unit of longbows who had wreaked significant damage on the elves, it was decided that the elves would not press the pursuit closely, but would permit the orcs to retire and lick their wounds.

All in all, not a bad game for an idle two hours on a Saturday afternoon.  The elves won so handily that we agreed that the problem we had had was the result of a scenario/victory condition issue rather than a basic imbalance of forces, so the next game is likely to be about changing the victory conditions for the demo scenario.

...Improve each shining hour...Reprise

 The first full week of working at home ends, and I can turn my attention to other things for a couple of days.  I had hope to get outside and do some scenery work or possibly even a bit of casting, but the weather is not cooperating.

 

A wet gloomy day

Happily, it was a beautiful early spring day yesterday, so, when work ended, I grabbed my untested new Hot Wire Foam Factory kit and a sheet of pink insulation board and took it out into the back yard to give it a try.

Hot Wire Foam Factory tool kit

 I cut a three level hill for a corner of a table, and one small single-level hill.  I had hoped to get to the home improvement store for some household latex in some sort of green to match the mat I’ve been using on the table (see, for example, the Dragon Rampant post two back from here).  However, that didn’t happen, so I have whatever resources I have around the house.  In any case, I’m probably going to have to try a couple of different techniques.  The good news was that the cutting was really easy, so additional batches will not be difficult.  These will probably end up painted with whatever cheap craft paint I have and then covered in sand and/or Woodland Scenics ground foam flock. My brother also recommends gluing the pink board together with Alene’s Tacky Glue, so I’ll give that a try on the stacked hill.

Some test pieces

It’s a commonplace of the current crisis, but I like to bake bread even in better times, so that’s what I’m up to this morning.

Bread rising...

 However, the next bread project is going to be a try at some French baguettes rather than more whole wheat sandwich bread, because the whole wheat flour container is down to less than half.  I still have a five pound bag worth of all-purpose flour left after Christmas baking and some bread flour.  Dinner is likely to be curried lentils today.

...but the flour container is getting low.

With everyone discussing solo wargaming, I took a look at the blog of the Solo Wargamers Association, and decided that it was finally time to join.  I also picked up a few of the recent issues of The Lone Warrior, so I can be gathering some inspiration whether or not I can get anything on the table this weekend.

...Improve each shining hour...

I’m glad I have a job that permits me to work at home in this current situation.  However, I was a little surprised to find that the two hours a day that I am not commuting has disappeared immediately into a vortex of minor life maintenance activities.  I finally got to use my nice clean painting desk yesterday, with a start on two dozen Ral Partha medieval spearmen and crossbowmen to eventually be fielded as a fantasy civic militia, plus a couple of personalities to support them.  I hope to have them finished by the end of the weekend.

At least the food has been good.  I made a vat of ham and navy bean soup last night, enough for three meals for the two of us, and froze the leftovers for later.

I feel like soup needs some bread to go with it, so I made a batch of a quick soda bread (2 cups flour, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, stir, knead lightly, bake at 350F for about 20 minutes).

On to today...

At the Prince-Palatine's Table

We were invited to share a traditional Wachovian delicacy at the Prince-Palatine's table today; a tasty homemade apple pie.  It's nice to have multi-talented children...Unfortunately, time has been too tight for an actual game this weekend.