Go love a book!

Not strictly a post of real substance with regards to minis or gaming, but this was passed on to me by a very dear friend and I felt it was worth handing down the line.

CLICKY THE LINKY

The volume is a little extreme in parts (I recommend turning it down somewhat), but it's really an exceptionally touching piece about how powerful the written word, when used to inspire and entertain, can be.  I'm rather tempted to go and write a story now...

I have no wish to...

...turn this blog into anything other than a rarely-updated place to post pictures, writing, general works or stuff "wot I has done".  But very occasionally something comes up that makes me really want to say something. This is one of those times.  I doubt it will actually earn a great deal of extra momentum from my posting, but sometimes the smallest of stones can help create an avalanche.

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

If you have any interest in the internet remaining a useful resource for the free and legal exchange of information, free from governmental or corporate interference, go there and sign the petition.  Thank you.

Off to England!

Heading home to England later today, thus no updates because of packing, weighing, repacking, reweighing and finally packing a third time.

I'll do my utmost to post Armies of Greyhawk updates here while I'm there, but I make no promises. I don't get to visit 'home' all that often, so I'm sure I'll be doing an awful lot of annoying old friends for the next few weeks. If I'm not too wrapped up in the moment, I'll even try to take pictures of things.

Have a good time, blog peoples. Happy dice-rolling!

Chain mail

No, not THAT kind of Chainmail. I mean the real stuff, made of steel and made by burly bearded men in leather aprons.

The name of this blog isn't by random choice. I make chain and mail, both as a hobby for myself and by rare commission for people who want cool little doodads like dice bags, clothing and random bits of chains. If you need chain mail hosiery for a loved one, captive child, pet or real doll, now is the time to order it... Or something, anyway. I figured that as I hadn't actually posted anything about any of my chain work I should show some off. Now's the time to do that simply because I've gotten into a few projects for people before the holiday seasons so have put a few other hobbies aside for a while to pick up my tools again for a bit.

Here's a couple pictures of bits of steel in odd shapes I've either done or am currently working on. It's not much, but nothing's worse than anything else.

No minis!?

No, Joe, this isn't a flagrant plagiarism of your own blog post... Well, MAYBE it is, but anyway.

I spent today pushing around pieces and hanging out with some jolly fine chaps. No miniatures were involved, although vast amounts of cardboard chits were. I may have spent 90% of the time trying to worm miniatures into every single game, but it was still a marvelous time.  I'd never really paid a huge amount of attention to these games before, except when I was randomly designing my own Master of Magic inspired board battle-games aged 8, so it was a great thing to finally play and watch others play some of the games that make up the history of what led to the rise and popularity of miniatures wargaming.

And damnit if it wasn't a heck of a lot of fun! True, the people helped, just like D&D we spend as much time laughing and talking about related subjects as we do pushing counters around. That's what gaming's all about, kids! I even won my very first game. I'm clearly some sort of tactical savant-genius (or just damn lucky, which is probably more true than anything else I've ever said)!

Here's pictorial evidence of the final turn before my opponent conceded defeat (arguably with just cause, I was playing red). Warning on click-through, it's a BIG picture.