I got laid off from my job at Array in May. It was, at the time I was hired, the best job I ever had. I was sorry to go, but disillusionment had already set in by March of this year when the director of design (my manager) and our lead designer were laid off—thus effectively eviscerating our design team. I spent the next two months assuming my time was coming. Then it did. Array is a start up and startups can be volatile. Content designers are a luxury in volatile situations because "anyone can write." Nevertheless, I got a nice severance and had money in the bank. I was prepared for a bit of a wait until something else came along. That something came last week and I start a new contract position at Microsoft on Wednesday.
Of course I'm happy to be working again. No, really. Severance, savings, and unemployment checks will all run out eventually. It's too early to retire and the civilizational collapse they keep promising repeatedly fails to materialize. Adam Smith wrote that "there's a great deal of ruin in a nation." Apparently we haven't exhausted our store of ruin yet, so hi-ho, hi-ho.
On the other hand, I had wished that my gainful unemployment would last until September, like after Labor Day. I wanted to squeeze out the last drops of summer before returning to wage slavery. But it's been just over three months of economically-inflicted leisure now, so I can't complain. Besides, it really hasn't been leisure. I spent most of every day chasing down job opportunities, reacting to urgent (URGENT!) appeals from recruiters and never hearing back from them, and reading depressing blog posts from people in the tech industry who've been unemployed for more than a year.
However, when I wasn't fruitlessly chasing down work, I had a lot of time to game or do gaming-related things (like paint minis and make terrain 'n' stuff). What follows is a précis of what has been occupying me for the last three months.
Xenos Rampant
At the time I was laid off, I was pretty deeply into working on completing two Xenos Rampant forces. I was planning a couple games at Enfilade!, our regional convention, and had a bit of work to do, all while taking a long weekend off to go to Bozeman, MT for my nephew's wedding under the Big Sky.
Most of the rest of my time in May was spent preparing for Enfilade!, which involved painting minis and completing the terrain. The minis were well towards completion by the time I achieved leisure. There were a few more bits to complete for the "Green Meanies," the original force I painted in a camo pattern.
There was also the "Red Menace" force to complete. These minis form the red-themed OPPFOR for the Green Meanies.
Doing the terrain for XR had to start from scratch. I've built up a nice collection of terrain bits over the years, but it's all for Earth. Starting with the TableWar Desert Planet game mats I inherited from Dave Schueler, I needed to create the rest of the terrain to match them, which involved lots of buying stuff on Etsy and frequent visits to Hobby Lobby to buy out bits of their faux plants stock to create an alien-looking environment for our games.
Since the project started just before Christmas in 2022, getting two complete forces painted, plus all the terrain, was a pretty good result. I may be lazy and prone to distractions, but when I set my mind to a project, it's surprising how much I can get done quickly. I'll return to that theme below.
We played our first game down in Tacoma in April and I was also able to get a pre-Enfilade! playtest of one of my scenarios on the Wednesday before the convention.
With two games under mt belt and all the bits completed, I was ready for the con.
Enfilade!
My participation at our regional convention this year was understated. I drove down on Saturday, ran two games of Xenos Rampant back to back, then zoomed back home to feed my ravenous cats.
Having just spent the last weekend away, I was loth to do it two weekends in a row. Plus, I miss the cats when I'm away. I fear for their mental health when they're left with no one to torment.
The games went well and were enjoyed by the players. I even won the Best of Period award for my second game on Saturday afternoon.
The convention was mostly uneventful otherwise—except for a purchase I shared with Scott Murphy. Someone was selling a pile of mostly Crusader Miniatures Carthaginians. Amongst the pile were four Aventine Miniatures elephants. I'd been slowly working on a Carthaginian warband for Saga: Age of Hannibal and was resolved to use the Crusader Miniatures elephants I had, even though I don't like them. Acquiring the Aventine nellies enabled me to do a hybrid using the Aventine elephant bodies with the Crusader howdah and crew.
Saga
Saga has dominated the last few months. It started before I was laid off, but I thought then that I'd have little opportunity to participate. Being all retired, the group meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month (and the fifth when that occurs). Because I'm still working that was impossible for me. I managed one Saga game on a Saturday in late April with Mark Waddington, but I figured I'd only be able to play Saga when I could talk one of my retired friends into playing on a weekend.
Of course being temporarily retired change my availability. After Enfilade!, I was able to devote myself to painting Saga warbands, although I had been dabbling in it since April when I dug out the Carthaginians I started so long ago for a 28mm Field of Glory project. That project, which I completed in early June, was just the first of others that involved digging up old, abandoned projects and making them Saga projects.
Fresh from completing and playing a Carthaginian warband, I contemplated other Saga warbands and rummaged through my garage for other half-begun or abandoned projects. As I related in an earlier post, I had a trove of Pictish and Irish figures from Old Glory that I'd painted for Pig Wars back in the day. I'd already started rebasing the Picts and discovered that with just a bit more painting, I'd have a formidable Pictish warband for Saga. With a bot of determination, I got the army done and let them start tearing up the field.
My next project was resurrecting the Irish, which took a bit more work, but I was able to get them into a game against Gary Griess at our most recent Saga Wednesday meet-up. I can work fast when I want to.
I started yet another Xenos Rampant force using some Alternative Armies figures that I couldn't resist (like Oscar Wilde, the only thing I cannot resist is temptation). I have only one Elite Infantry unit painted so far. Being fairly glutted with Saga Warbands now (Welsh, Carthaginians, Picts, Irish), I may pivot back to them. Kevin Smyth and I will run a Xenos Rampant game at an event in September, so maybe completing a couple more units by then would be in order.
Still in the works for Saga: Britons for Age of Invasions, expanding the Irish to be Norse-Gaels for Age of Vikings, Romans for Age of Invasions (using A and A Miniatures excellent 3rd c. Romans, which I've had before—but also a 4th c. Roman army using the Black Tree Design Late Romans I've had sitting in a box for years), Byzantines for Age of Vikings or Age of Crusades, Anglo-Danes/Anglo-Saxons for Age of Vikings, Macedonians for Age of Alexander...
I was beginning to fear that I had too few irons in the fire.
Spending
Nothing says gainful employment like making it rain on minis manufacturers.
Unless you're me and don't worry about the "gainful employment" bit. Then it's Katy bar the door on all the new stuff coming in.
(Full disclosure: I didn't actually measure, but I'm pretty sure I didn't buy fewer bags of Cheetos.)
Before I went and completed painting my "discovered" Pictish Saga warband, I ordered Curteys minis for another one from 1st Corps. This was after I already ordered minis for a Post-Roman British warband last year while I was still employed (even though I already have a bunch of Old Glory minis for that from long ago). The PRBs, I'm happy to say, have been started. The Curteys Picts will likely sit for a while. I already have one warband, with options, completed. I really like the Curteys minis from 1st Corps, but they don't make bare-nekkid Attacotti figures.
Etsy.com has been a treasure trove of resin cast and 3D printed goodies. I'm still pretty much strictly a metal man when it comes to figures, but terrain bits are another matter. I have projects a-plenty to get to.
I also re-bought some 3rd c. Roman figures to use for Saga. I have a lot of these figures in the past, then sold 'em. Even though they're not the right era—but close!—for Saga: Age of Invasions, I'll use them for that.
Lest I spill it all here, I'll save news of more purchases for later in this post. Keep reading.
The Schueler legacy
No matter how neatly we organize all the things, we miniatures gamers are hoarders. In no time, we have boxes full of painted minis and even more boxes of unpainted or partially-painted minis. Add to that rules books, terrain bits, other books, paint, tools, game aids, etc. and we have a lot of stuff to leave behind when we go. In most cases those we leave behind have no idea what to do with it all.
With time on my hands, I was able to get together with Kevin Smyth and Michael Koznarsky to help Lynn Schueler arrange a giveaway of Dave's collection. It's a dolorous duty to sort through and organize a friend's stuff when it all brings back memories of the times you've spent playing with it, discussing it, and reveling in the hobby together.
Lynn wanted to make sure that Dave's friends had the opportunity to inherit all his stuff. I need more stuff like I need a hole in my head, but it's nice to have tangible things to remember him by, though the intangible memories can never be rivaled.
We got together at Lynn's house on July 15 to give it all away.
It's funny to have had so many "I didn't know he was into that" moments going through it all. Dave was never close-lipped about his gaming interests, but I was surprised to see how much sci-fi stuff he was unobtrusively working on. He was always most focused on air and naval gaming. I wish we'd had more opportunity to explore our mutual enthusiasms.
It was amusing to to go through boxes only to find disconnected bits of this and that. It felt like rummaging through my own boxes of what-not.
Amidst all the exploration and stuff-getting, we drank a toast to Dave using his hootch (a.k.a. Scottish rocket fuel). You don't realize how much you took for granted that someone who was always there would always be there, until they're not.
Níl na mairbh marbh ach beo i gcroí na ndaoine a raibh grá acu dóibh.
We got most everything given away and Kevin, Michael, and I recently helped Lynn go over the remnants in preparation for a phase II giveaway yet to come.
Tribal, the final most recent excess
I've already related how an innocent question asked on a forum I hardly ever pay attention to launched me into a Tribal frenzy. My love of things primitive betrayed me here. I've looked longingly at figure ranges for primitive warriors and sighed because I couldn't think of what to do with them. Tribal—even though I must have picked up a PDF of the rules way back in 2018 or so—just didn't jump out at me until last week, then POW! I jumped right in by playing a game with Wes Rogers and I'm hooked.
I bought the second edition rules (which still haven't come as of this writing), a 3' x 3' mat to play on, and started looking back at the websites that made me sigh in the past.
A short(ish) while back, Bob Murch of Pulp Figures released a pack of mud men as part of his Savage Seas range. I was struck by them because they're so unique, but I wasn't sure what I'd ever do with them. Now I know.
There's only a single pack available, but it contains multiple poses and separate weapons. I bought enough packs to build a Tribal warband with. Then, fearing that they may be lonely, I bought enough packs of Pulp Figures Melanesians to make a rival warband so they'd have someone to fight.
I asked Bob before I ordered if he had plans to expand the range. He said he'd thought about a pack of chief types. I heartily endorsed that notion and further suggested that he also consider a separate multi-pose pack of mud men with bows. The one available pack has a single bowman figure, but he's stuck in one pose (although there's a huge variety with the separate mud head). To my delight, four hours later—and after I made my order—Bob posted on Facebook that he was considering adding archers and leader figures to the range.
So, huzzah! From my mouth to Bob's ear.
Btw, Bob lives in Kelowna, BC and is in the midst of the wildfires they're enduring up there. He's safe so far, but keep a good thought for him and his fellow Kelownians.
Having ordering all those figures from Bob on the 14th, on Wednesday, I was innocently standing outside of Silver King in Tacoma waiting for the store to open, when I spotted a post in the Tribal Facebook group from Nick Eyre of North Star Figures announcing that sculpting maven Bobby Jackson—a fan of the Tribal rules—had made available a range of caveman figures he'd originally designed for himself as a Tribal warband.
Well, crap. How could I resist? Now I have a pile of tin troglodytes on their way from Nottingham as well as mud men coming down from Canada. It's raining wee metal men and flood warnings are out.
It's good that I'm going back to work so I can afford all this.
Gaming ahead
Apart from Saga on Wednesdays, I did most of my gaming during this time on weekends, as I have done since time immemorial. However, with most my regular gaming opponents being retired, the shift towards midweek gaming is happening. I hope to get a lot more weekend gaming in when I can.
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