Walking Away from the Tabletop

24th January 202326th January 2023 by Stephen | Leave a comment

It’s been 40ish years.

I’ve been involved with tabletop gaming since the early 80s, leaving the working class area where I was brought up and the only entertainment I had was football and boxing, I started hanging around with a group of middle-class college kids.

and that’s where I discovered Rogue Trader and Dungeons and Dragons and I didn’t look back…

Until

As we all know the last threeish years have been strange for a lot of different reasons and one of the things that has happened has been that I lost touch with all my gaming friends.

This meant that I filled all that gaming time with other projects, mainly book related projects which seem to expand to fill any available time.

After a lot of thought I’m adding a shop to my Ko-Fi and I’m going to get rid of all the gaming bits that are sitting in my garage and study unloved and unused, mainly Warhammer and Malifaux.

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At this point though I will be keeping all my non-DnD RPG books (and maybe trying to play online) and board games (most have a decent solo mode), but unless anything changes drastically those will probably be going the same way as the rest.

I’ve not taken this lightly but it all feels very superfluous at the moment and it could all be converted into a decent Mac Air at the very least.

Now just to find the time to get on with this!

If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Indie Bookshops) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

In Her Majesty’s Name

17th December 202224th January 2023 by Stephen | Leave a comment

Armed Police Constables

I recently got the rulebook for In Her Majesty’s Name after having it recommended by several people I play other skirmish games with.

Like all rulebooks published by Osprey Publishing it was well set out and the rules were very straightforward, also not a lot of rules to contradict each other or bog down play.

The other thing I really likes about the ruleset was that it didn’t tie you to one manufactures models, much like Frostgrave (more of which in another post).

So I then set out looking for models that made me want to play them as a group in this setting, and eventually found some miniatures by Casting Room Miniatures from their Victorian range.

I am going to build a band based around a few gentlemen adventurers that lead a group of armed policemen against the dastardly evil curs that abound in the era. Still to work out the stats and such but that seems to be part of the fun of the game.

Looking forward to receiving these miniatures and painting them, then really looking forward to putting them on a gaming table soon.

If you want to help and support this blog and my other projects (Indie Publishers and Big Bearded Bookseller) you could become a Patreon which would help pay for my hosting, domain names, streaming services, and the occasional bag of popcorn to eat while watching films.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

“We’ll Be Back”

21st September 202224th January 2023 by Stephen | Leave a comment

Necrons

I think I got my first Necron models very early in 2003, or late 2002. That’s quite a bit back now and I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday (that’s why I’m putting recipes in this blog). But I really loved the space robot, terminator aesthetic but they didn’t last long as I wasn’t enamoured with their pretty straightforward play style.

So I went green instead and stayed that way for a long, long time. Of course with the splash of red to go faster and blue for luck.

But the Indomitus new model releases, especially the update to the Warrior sculpt really had me interested and after looking at all the new models and interactions in the Codex I’m really up for jumping into this army with both feet, shins, knees, and even thighs.

I’ve nothing built yet but I’m going to be charting my progress on my Twitter account using the hashtag #HobbyStreak as suggested by Rob across at The Honest Wargamer on a recent podcast episode.

What I’ve got to build though is a wee bit:

Catacomb Command Barge
Overlord x2
Royal Warden x4
Plasmancer x2
Cryptothralls x4
Skorpekh Lord x2
Skorpekh Destroyers x6
Plasmacyte x2
Canoptek Reanimator x2
Canoptek Scarab Swarm – 27 bases
Necron Warriors – 90 models (I miscounted the Indomitus boxes)
Night Scythe
Hexmark Destroyer
Doom Blades x3

I’m going to try and build at least one model a day but want to get all the Scarabs, Warriors, and an Overlord done first.

I’ve also got some plans to kitbash Nightbringer and a Transcendent C’tan out of some Age of Sigmar stuff, so watch out for progress on that as well.

I’ll add a gallery below this as and when I build anything, and add to the list above as I buy things.

(This is another older post, but I’m just dragging all my gaming and hobby stuff back out of the shed)

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.

A Question of Suitability

14th July 202224th January 2023 by Stephen | Leave a comment

Baron Bobba

I saw this image of Slave-1 done up with a German Luftwaffe cross on it and really liked the colour scheme and how it all worked together.

The original post is for another gaming system called Dust which is set in an alternative timeline WWII. The imagery fits so well with Dust and therefore the question isn’t about Dust.

The question comes from a discussion regarding whether or not this paint scheme would be suitable for the Star Wars universe, and whether or not it would offend people?

Your thoughts please.

If you can’t support with a monthly subscription a tip at my Ko-Fi is always appreciated, as is buying things from my Ko-Fi Shop.

You can always email me on contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com with any suggestions.