New Blog!

OK, so here's the new blog - all I need to do is try to work out how to use it and what to put in it!

Basically, I have enjoyed reading so many wargaming blogs over the years, and it's about time that
1) I learned about this technology, and
2) I put something back in to the hobby

It is born out of my interest in colonial warfare of the 19th century, and of my love of Victorian Science Fiction, personified by RPGs like Space:1889.

So what follows will be sporadic posts as I create terrain and build units for warfare on the face of Mars in the twilight years of a fictional Earth's 19th Century.

I collect 15/18mm figures, largely from Black Hat's Martian Empires range, but also from Peter Pig and Old Glory.  These have been collected over the years, and work has been a bit too hectic to do much other that daydream over plans.  I really have to start painting my mountain of lead some time, and with a blog I just may have to bite the bullet!

And then there was a decision about the rules I wanted to use.  Should I write my own, or buy something else; but if so what?  Naturally I have done both.  My collection of rules is ... well-endowed, let us say.  From The Sword and the Flame to Black Powder, via Valor, Steel & Flesh and Martian Empires, not to mention various internet-published ones.  I have tried drafting my own, from a variant of TSATF (15mm Fighting Englishmen if you must know) to a standalone Colonial/VSF set entitled The Modern Major General.  Nothing has really worked for me.

Then, several years ago I came across Eric Burgess's wonderful Din of Battle blog, and have followed it eagerly ever since.   Eric is a Piquet rules system man through-and-through.  It is a system that has always piqued (ha-ha) my interest, and it is one that seems to provokes emotions of love and extreme dislike.  I am still fairly new to them, but I am tending towards the love end of the spectrum.  I do like the feeling of fog of war that they create, and as I do not have any wargaming opponents the card-guided nature of the game gives me the unpredictability that make solo play more satisfying.  And it means that I have a basing system and so I have no further excuses for further prevarication.

OK, enough writing ... on with it, man!
Clive G