From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

An American gaming phenomenon is happening alongside general nerd culture, the reclamation of the mall. The death of the indoor mall in American culture occurred and the zombies that refused to crumble remain through underserved commerce. I am surprised by one local venue that has one dedicated gaming store off the food court area and three anime related ones around the complex. There is another where a whole pub and wargame store merged in the space which had been retail clothing space. They have a smaller annex space which looks like it might’ve been a telephone shop that they set up for CCGs.

There are still the dedicated FLGS in the area which primarily cater to CCG players and GW enthusiasts but this is a difference in the commercial direction that I find interesting. The overall trend to bringing in non gaming merchandise to the hobby store space has been apparent for the past two decades. Comic stores started bleeding into game shops from the shared arena of people. Then came the associated plush figures, stickers, snacks (more so than before) and blind box collectible figures.

Right now I don’t know how to chart what direction these new commercial ventures might turn but its interesting to see. The ones I enjoy most right now are the gaming space/tavern. A few games and a friendly beer to bs over the results of grand command warfare on the tabletop promote great community engagement.

What do you lot in Europe and elsewhere think? Can a hybrid space like this thrive in your neck of the woods?

I came to a point of pondering. With all the hype over Konflikt ’47 lately I’ve found myself not really caring much. I like the idea of a Weird World War but it didn’t catch me to start into buying/collecting/playing. This is far different than Ancients or other eras. The preindustrial era had a certain fog of separation which allows for the mind to wander as to what was real. The realm of mythology can be woven into the historical wargaming.

Trench Crusade is the closest to what might qualify as a historical fantasy. I think this is, again, a point where the possible merges with what has not been and succeeds at building a player base spanning both camps. The fluff starts historically and builds a world to “game in the gap” of possibilities but distinctly retains a sense of impossible. With all this the simulation versus recreation fades. The same can be said of Konflikt as I doubt that many of the epic battles of WWII could have been played or played out the same as history shows.

Because of this, I think that the further away in history from today we play, the easier it is to believe the ludicrous.

I need a hero! (cue the 80s montage)

I have decided that if I were to do an army for SAGA Age of Chivalry I have a faction and leader picked out. I will field Codottiere led by Bartolomeo Colleoni. I was curious about hearts on heraldry in a passing thought and stumbled upon this man’s colors.

Apparently, from the Wikipedia entry, those aren’t upside down hearts but scrotums.

As with a number of things I do there is a great deal of sophmoric humor I write up and post. I enjoy taking this very serious topic of war and turn it into a ridiculous thing that isn’t serious at all. Growing up for a time in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, in Roveredo in Piano, I have an attachment to the country and culture. The fact that this man is so blatantly connected to a joke and is very much an icon of the age makes him perfect in my mind to model my army around.

The color scheme will be easy enough as it is in the heraldry. I might take some liberties with sub units of the company. I could also play with some other ideas I have from having traveled around the country. Who know? This is all pie in the sky for now.

The title came by sharp wit and satire the likes of “The Producers”. It comes to my present thinking of a way to introduce a Jewish friend to SAGA.

Since Hanukkah has eight days I’ll be doing an army of that many points. Each day will be another unit to add and overall a greater gift than just some silly little collection of tiny fighting men his wife can question about. These will be tiny fighting Jewish men and therefore beyond question as to what value they could have. Some 25mm scale waterslide decals from Veni Vidi Vici and it will be obvious who they were. I can even get a few different color options if I wanted to really go nuts.

Worst case scenario I can always try to sell a bullshit story as to it being a game to help teach their son tactical thinking under uncertain conditions. Really, its another push to Snag-a-normie and utilize asymmetrical thinking. With this I’d also put a feather in my cap to build and paint an Ancient army.

The overall problem I see is the lack of cavalry to the time period. Oh yeah there were chariots, but I really find them to be a pain in the ass to base properly. Other than The Horde for Age of Magic chariots don’t exist (maybe war machines if I look again).

Newline Designs would be my base for infantry and archers as they have reasonable costs for the troops I need. That’s four points taken care of.

I saw The Perry’s have some Assyrian cavalry I can put on the field for another point. Yes I said it was a pain to find the right figures. I say this as I try to keep the cost down as shipping costs can be horrendous.

The command would probably be the Early Hebrew Command from Warlord in their Hail Caesar line. Then again I think that Red Copper miniatures has some good sculpts and I could get what I need from Blitzkrieg Miniatures.

I think that maybe having Moses as the sorcerer might be a sticking point as to whether or not he was really the leader. Perhaps it would be better to go with a generic rabbi and have some armored wahoo as the head honcho. The Ark of the Covenant would definitely be the sacred terrain piece so I think all bases are covered up to the monsters.

Myminifactory has a great selection of angels so I think that will help my issue of needing bodies for the field. There is a seraphim and cherubim from Battle Yak Studios that would be keen to add the supernatural.

Yet again, an idea hits and I think it might be a good one.

So I painted up some cultists from Frostgrave Cultist set I & II a few weeks back and with the site going under maintenance and general overhaul I decided to try again and put these up. It helps my sense of doing something while work has me out of town during the week and I’m not able to hobby much other than on the weekend.

So I’ve come to an idea. Yes, this is no surprise for those who have looked over the rest of my ramblings. I am curbing my own spending by just exploring the thought spawned by past inspiration.

I wish to see an army of The Thinkah. This all comes from the TV series Ducktales, season 3 episode 308 “Bubba’s Big Brainstorm”, and is a blatant ripoff of the “primitive” tribe that sports high tech gear but no longer can do much with it. I am likely inspiring a crossover into the realm of what kind of madness Wargames Atlantic can come up with in sculpting. If they have an eye on my mere mortal blog here, I’m always up for a chat on crazy ideas. Hell anyone willing to be about insane inspiration is welcome to DM me.

On the build I think that a kitbash of what can be pulled together with Mythic Americas figures and any sci-fi bits useful for grimdark future motif models will do the job. Then again I think Paymaster Games would be a good alternate for figures, if for nothing but the pack Llama (yes, its cute). The monsters that Paymaster have for sale makes it easy to slot into SAGA Age of Magic and avoids a deep dive of mythology. On the other hand it could give option to those that jump onto this and head into The Doomed as we’ve seen a Let’s Play done by Shay and Gerry.

Ok, I think that’s pretty good for a brain baby given birth to the gaming world. Just like Rule 34 I expect this to take hold somewhere in the collection of minds out there and spawn greatness. This might be a series of posts to avoid spending money.

A refurbished mini from 1980 that I have no idea who had cast. I’ve eliminated Ral Partha and Grenadier from what I’ve seen but there were other random mini makers at the time. Any idea who might’ve made this?

I think the plinth was more appropriate and added a bit of dignity to the mini.

With this week’s XLBS in the bag and chewed over for a bit I think I’ll think some more and mull over the matter a little longer. I think this stream of consciousness format works well on project. It is using this blogging technology as intended. I’m on topic of what’s going on in my head as a larger meal than the mini morsels you may be teased on with Vtubers or X account blurbs.

So, here’s my latest idea as inspired by my last batch of minis. I’ll put together more Verrotwood cults. With a count of a whopping 4 models I think I can manage those kinds of numbers without anxiety around if I would be getting them done. The first brain baby to birth is a cult consisting of a a little girl and her murderous animated dolls.

I started off with the movie of Plank Face from 2016.

I remembered the bunny masked girl in the film and thought I saw something in the Verrotwood book with the same and perhaps an alternate cultist head sprue done in plastic that also had pig head masks. I looked but only found stls for Frank the Rabbit from Donny Darko as stls. I did find other creepy images to run with.

From there I went down a hole of gothic lolita street fashion from Japan. Got reupped on my info about subgenres to that fashion trend (elegant goth loli, sweet loli, wa loli and erololi among others). Off to Pintrest for more pages on Victorian lawn dresses I then was struck with remembering the game Rule of Rose.

I hit the brakes on fashion and turned to the horror of little girls. The Children was creepy and the uncanny valley of children in general from other movies is pretty bad. Most recently M3G4N hits that nail on the head. Thus to Myminifactory did I go and found the following which are perfect and being printed by a friend of mine after I wrote a short blurb on my head canon.

Momma never let her have any dolls, then little Lydia found Lord Stuffington. He’d talk to her sometimes when they played. His voice was a bit fuzzy, a little like a low dog growl, the creak of wood in her house with breaking glass and the jimgle bells on a hat. It made her a little dizzy and other sounds like they’re behind a cotton fog. She didn’t feel very good when he did too long.

During one of their games said he was alone and needed friends. He wanted an army but he needed her help to lead it. He made her his captain and said she could have more friends just like him. Now she gets all the dolls she can ever want to play with and no one can ever tell her no again. She and her army of dolls get all the nicest things after the screaming stops.