[unofficial weekender] Hiding in the bushes

[sundancer 43724xp 2]

Did a short visit to the local gaming convention Oldenburger Spieletag 2025 and took some pictures. Let me show you to different sides of your hobby.

Side A:

A small and cute Freebooters Fate table

Side B:

A Warhammer 40k tournament.

I know which side I’m on!

[limburger 22084xp 1]

@sundancer

I see the same crappy style … and yes, I agree 100%.
Only one of them makes me want to join a tournament and it’s not the 40k one.

While I was watching two players set up their game one of them commented on how the previous players had not taken care of the terrain.

I’m tempted to say that this sort of ‘terrain’ pretty much invites that kind of behaviour because it looks like trash. I’d also wonder why I’d bother to paint the army as the terrain is given zero effort.

[grantinvanman 6249xp 2]

That cardstock with defined area terrain just looks crap. 40K has so much more to offer.

[limburger 22084xp 1]

It’s even worse than I thought : it is an official standard …

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/bwP2Tf1T/metawatch-warhammer-40000-building-beautiful-balanced-battlefields-for-grand-tournament-play/

I simply cannot understand why you would want to play a game on a table like that, but then I can’t understand why in videogames folk think they ‘need’ those ugly as sin neon glow skins …

I would want a game to look good when it is being played in a tournament.
Whenever I see images from Infinity tournaments I know it is possible.

[Lazagram 59xp 1]

Pledge – My paint comp entry is still in the thought stage; I need to get started with that. ‘Magical Explosion’ is testing my imagination skills; no printing a way out this month, so we shall see. Id like to make some progress on my greenskins, maybe the Deffcoptas.

Solo Play – I think it’s nice to have the option in a game for those who enjoy that kind of thing, but I’m not likely to be found playing one. Me, Myself and I are all terrible to each other, so I think cheating would be rife at the least serious rule-bending.

Music – Did someone say bushes? https://youtu.be/RySHDUU2juM?si=Uocz8-ZdC1jAYPm3

 

[limburger 22084xp 1]

The best Starwars song :

Have a sample of my pasta

// —
Whoever thought that assembly instructions should be digital needs to be assigned his own circle of hell.
A big stack of plastic sprues is intimidating if you don’t know which bits are for what. There’s definitely terrain hiding in there too.
At least the rules are in physical format, but I think the current ones are digital only … not that it is going to matter a lot.

[grantinvanman 6249xp 0]

Not all tournaments used the crappy cardstock. They do make real terrain, just in the concept and space of the crappy stuff.

GW tournament win-at-all-cost gamers don’t care though. Three fast colours, minimal basing, card terrain, it’s the game within the game that matters to them – like they’ll win a big medal or something. Hard pass. I take a lot of pride in all my hobby work, and also in having fun over winning when gaming. The prizes for me are “best sportsmanship” and “best painted”. Where I place is irrelevant.

[limburger 22084xp 0]

maybe not all of them do … but why is it that when crappy cardstock tables are shown they tend to be 40k/GW themed ?

Are people ashamed of having to play on such tables when other games are involved so they don’t post any pictures ?

Meanwhile the GW/40k crowd appears to not give a damn …

[grantinvanman 6249xp 0]

@limburger your local tournaments seem… uh, poopy. Locally, REAL terrain is used.

[limburger 22084xp 1]

@grantinvanman I don’t know any 40k tournaments, but otoh … if this is what they decided to bring to what is effectively the biggest table top convention in the Netherlands then I can only say that our local 40k tournaments suck the big one.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that there are better options than the bare bones cardboard they had chosen.
However the google results suggested that this bare bones style is not considered abnormal by any means, which is kind of depressing.

[sundancer 43724xp 0]

Tuesday.

Cold and dark outside.

Coffee dark and hot inside.

IT life.

[blinky465 17178xp 3]

I got back from visiting family in Sicily yesterday. Had a lovely time, but can’t believe how cold and dark it is now, and how close to Xmas it’s accidentally become. A few days ago, I was sitting outside in a t-shirt and swimming in the sea. And now some bugger has told me it’s time to start thinking about ordering a turkey and who’s going to be on my naughty/nice lists this year.

We came back via Barcelona (it was cheaper than a direct flight, so we booked a cheap hotel and stayed over a few days).
I love that city! In fact, it was because I was made redundant earlier in the year (for one day, then the boss realised he had nobody to keep the lights on) that I decided it was time to embrace just going places and getting things done, while we are able to. I’ve never felt like my job was precarious before – even when I was freelancing and going from contract to contract.
I guess it’s just the way of the world right now.
Thanks, AI, it seems like you’ve put us all on short notice.

Which has me thinking – maybe it’s time to consider short-term, high value contracting again.
If there’s a way I could put a month’s rent through my company as a legitimate business expense, I might give it some serious consideration! If I’ve got to live precariously now (thanks to AI placing the spectre of redundancy permanently in my eyeline) I feel like I should rip the arse out of it, and make it a bit more enjoyable, while I’m still employed/employable!

Music?
Ok, those of you playing along, don’t bail early on this one – listen to it, through to the end. It’s incredible

Pledge?
Make a start on this month’s painting contest entry.

[PaintComp] November 2025

Magic explosion you say – I had just one thought on this and haven’t been able to think of anything else, so I’m going with the obvious.

Favourite solo system?
I’ve tried One Hour Skirmish Wargames and find the system works really well for solo games – just deal out the cards, and do as they tell you! Quick and easy. The “red is dead” is a nice touch.

I nearly bought a canal boat this week.
I still can’t decide if to do so would be an act of lunacy, or the best thing I could do right now.
I really miss my old boat (this was also a Dawncraft Highbridge like my first boat). It’d be a big commitment. And not to mention, stupidly expensive. So we couldn’t afford to do much else for a few years afterwards.
How do you guys decide on “big purchases”?
Do you weigh up pros and cons and plan properly? Or do you just go “screw it” and take the plunge when a whim hits?

[zoidpinhead 12713xp 0]

@blinky465  Elkie Brooks!  That’s a blast from the past.  Top quality.  Perfect Midlantic singing accent too, not bad for a girl from Salford.  For those of a non-British persuasion her accent would have been this:

As to making big purchases I have one of my own coming up soon (hopefully) as I’m selling up and moving back to London so will be buying a property for the first time in nearly 30 years.  Needless to say they are a bit more expensive than when I left 😀  As to my approach I’m a horrid bore and work through as many possibilities as I can.  After all, you can think about spending money an infinite number of times but you only get to actually spend it once.  I’m gradually working my way round bits of London that fit my criteria and deciding on general areas I want to look.  I walk the streets and then make mental notes of the bits I liked.  When my place sells I’ll have an idea of my budget and can then start to focus on looking at properties in the areas I’ve picked out.  I’ll view ones I like more than once and take a friend along as a second pair of eyes is very sensible.  Despite all of this I know that I’ll end up buying one that just has the right feel.  So I try to get a balance of head and heart.

For me, answering spur of the moment whims is what my hobby is for.  I love a bit of shiny syndrome.  While you are at it chuck in a big dollop of magical thinking, as I genuinely believe I’ll get to the bottom of the pile of potential one day 😀

 

[sundancer 43724xp 2]

How do you guys decide on “big purchases”?
Do you weigh up pros and cons and plan properly? Or do you just go “screw it” and take the plunge when a whim hits?

I don’t decide on those things because I can’t afford those things. Biggest purchase in my life so far was my old car back in 2012. It was the newest car I ever owned at that time and was necessary because I wanted a safe car for my new born and the old one started to grow mold and shrooms inside. At the time selling price of the car was 12.000€. That is as big as a purchase I have ever done.

Coincidently next week we (family and I) will be looking at a possible house to buy. It has some caveats including the house sitting on a property with hereditary building right attached to it. So we basically buy the house and rent the property it’s sitting on. Not uncommon here but feels weird. Still: it’s within the range I could be able to afford buying and (best of it all) it’s within walking distance to our current flat.

I’ve tried One Hour Skirmish Wargames and find the system works really well for solo games – just deal out the cards, and do as they tell you! Quick and easy. The “red is dead” is a nice touch.

Had a quick look-see on the amazon preview and was sad to see that it’s mostly settings I don’t really care about.

Wednesday. Still dark outside. Grabbing coffee now.

[limburger 22084xp 0]

Big purchases are odd.
It only feels real when you need to hand over stacks of real cash.

A lot of thinking and searching is involved when I want to buy something expensive. I really have to be convinced that it is something I actually need and that it really has to cost as much as it says. Usually my research has shown that yes … these things cost this much and you can’t get them any cheaper. Or if there are cheaper options then they often feel like they’d break in minutes as if they were never ever meant to be used.

Buying my house felt strangely anti-climatic. You sign pieces of paper … get the keys and then it is yours.

// —
@sundancer I’d say it is a generic set of rules meant to be inspiration for creating your own scenarios/rules.
There’s nothing in there that says you can’t use Stormtroopers or Jedi 😉

///
I’ve got a biig package incoming from Mantic.
I wonder what that will be … 😀

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