Happy 7th Amnesiaversary, or "Remember, Remember, the Whatever of Whichtember"

Ever get one of those weekends where you get the nagging sensation you've forgotten something crucial, something you were supposed to do, but you can't for the life of you put your finger on it?

Well, amid all the flurry over Millsy's old trouble coming back (Bubonic Plague does take a while to shake off, but his consumption seems to be under control... though if he starts writing piano nocturnes, it's straight off to the emergency ward), and an intervention being planned by concerned friends over my slightly unhinged enthusiasm for a new skirmish game, it turns out that the old firm of C&G has completely forgotten that last Friday was the 7th Anniversary of our illustrious blog!

Amnesia is a terrible disease, so to increase awareness of this debilitating condition, we are declaring a week of celebration; Happy 7th Amnesiaversary!

And to think that that this juggernaut of the blogosphere began in a humble workshop nestled in the alpine forests of Australia's Blue Mountains... Imagine the scene, all those years ago, when local artisan Hieronymus Mills the Younger sat at a bench and handcrafted individual lines of code to dovetail together the thing of beauty you see before you today. Marvel at the detail! And just look at that patina...!

We've notched up over 200,000 page views, helped start an e-zine, and accumulated 243 faithful followers, so we thank you, our constant readers, for giving so generously of your time and attention. None of this would have been possible without you. For what is a blog without followers? It's a scrapbook in the bottom drawer of a forgotten filing cabinet. A rusty filing cabinet with no key, on its way to the tip.

"Yeah, right," I hear you say, "so what's the big deal?"

The deal, Dear Readers, is this; in recognition of this milestone, we'll be making up for lost time and hurriedly assembling what ill-gotten loot we can offload onto our hapless shills some exciting giveaways for our valued followers, friends and casual readers!

How to Enter

There are three ways to enter the Amnesiaversary Giveaway;

1. Post a comment on this blog, telling us which prizes you would like to win in descending order of preference - faves at the top, but it might be hard to choose!
2. Provide a link back to this post from your own blog - if you don't have one, start one now!
3. Become a new follower of this blog.

Each of the above actions nets you one entry in the competition - that's up to three entries if you manage the lot!

So what's up for grabs? Let's take a look into the Vault of Goodies...

The Loot - Seven Years, Seven Prizes!

Frostgrave Necromancer & Apprentice, plus 10 Frostgrave Soldiers.

Frostgrave Summoner & Apprentice, plus 10 Frostgrave Soldiers.

Secret Weapon Round Resin Bases, 'Corpse Field' Theme - 1 x 60mm, 5 x 40mm, and 10 x 25mm

WHFB Plastic Nurgle Lord

WH40K Metal Ork Freebooter Kaptin Badrukk - old skool!

Frostgrave Undead Encounter Pack - 10 x skeletons, 4 x Ghouls, 3 x Zombies

He's back! WH40K Warboss Ghazghkull and 4 Ork Boyz Box.

The Draw

The competition closes at midnight AEDT on Sunday 4 October 2015. Winners will be randomly selected and posted on the C&G blog on Monday 5 October 2015. 

Limit of one prize per entrant - once you've won something, you'll be out of the running for the remainder. First winner gets to choose from the lot, second gets to choose from the remaining six, and so forth, 

Sorry, Number Seven, you get what's left - but with prizes like these, there are no losers!

So let's get this kicked off - Happy 7th Amnesiaversary to you all!

Evan & Millsy

Bandwagons Ho!

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

 Alright, I know it's another distraction, but it just looks so damned shiny...

Yes, I have just jumped on the latest bandwagon to roll over the gaming horizon, the fantasy skirmish juggernaut which has taken the hobby blogosphere by storm, Joseph McCullough's Frostgrave, published by Osprey Games with an official line of figures by North Star (and pretty darned nice they are too!).

It's a game of duelling wizards and their retinues of assorted thugs, thieves, soldiers and specialists questing for treasure in a ruined city which has been overtaken by a magical catastrophe. Sort of a Mordheim on Ice, if you will.

Frostgrave takes place in the city of Felstad, buried beneath glacial ice for centuries. Now the thaw has arrived, and wizards are assembling warbands to venture into the ruins in search of treasures both mundane and magical. 

Well, when C&G got wind of it, there was the usual dancing around the topic of this new arrival on the fantasy scene; "Hmm, this Frostgrave thingy is getting some good reviews..." "Not a bad price for a rulebook..." "Should we go halves in a box of soldiers?" And finally, "I'm putting together an order with North Star. You guys want anything?"

And so it begins. There are the first hints of some cyclopean walls in progress;

I make all my terrain out of Wensleydale. It's just so damned tasty!

Some promising finds in my collection of textured craft papers - nice bit of pavement there. 

Soon to be a load of old cobbles.

A box of soldiers, already in progress;

Some great faces for radio there...

And since I found out that the first supplement was to be called Thaw of the Lich Lord, naturally I decided that I should think ahead and get everyone's favourite undead (Vampires? Pfft. Too sparkly) ready for the fray. I got myself a Reaper Bones Lich for a fraction of the price of a metal fig, and got to work.

Here he is in the early stages, based with marble chips and pumice paste (incidentally, that stuff is a revelation; basing just got a whole lot quicker and easier).

"Five minutes, Mr Vecna."

And here he is as of this evening;

"Do you want eternal life? Sure, we all do!"

Of course, to fit in with Frostgrave, he's going to need a little more work, notably in the snow department, so he's going to look slightly festive by the time I've finished with him, especially with that red suit (dammit, I should have painted candy stripes on the staff, or at least hung a couple of bells off of it...).

So not only have I got myself a new hobby horse, my efforts are even less focused than usual! Result!

I'd better step back and work on some wizards next. At least then I'll have a colour palette to theme the warbands around.

Hope to get some more work in over the weekend - stay tuned!

Evan

Why let others tell you how to have fun?!?

As you may or may not have noticed I've been conspicuous by my absence of late. This is entirely through events outside my control (a rather nasty ongoing illness, now thankfully resolved and a soon-to-be-completed office move). So for those one or two people with nothing better to do with their time than read the blog, I sincerely apologise!

One thing I have been able to do in my relatively incapacitated state is read the odd blog post by my fellow gamers. With time to read and ponder I've become aware of a rather disappointing trend, especially amongst fans of a certain now defunct* fantasy universe.

There seems to be a rising tide of reacting to the discontinuation of a favourite game system by the throwing hands in the air, refusing to ever play it again and moving on elsewhere. Presumably this means armies people have lovingly lavished time and effort on painting and then enjoyed playing with for years will now sit unused and gathering dust or even be sold off.

WHY, for goodness sake?!?**

Are we so dependent on being spoon fed by games companies that we cannot continue to enjoy something just because they stop selling it? And why the bitterness if they do? I can understand a certain level of disappointment but some of the material I've read makes me wonder how some of us are so willing to put our enjoyment in our hobby*** seemingly entirely in the hands of others.

If [insert company name here] stops making your favourite game then screw 'em. If you enjoy a game system then keep playing it and the rest of the world can go jump. Become the owner of your own hobby and enjoy yourself. Don't let someone else tell you how, when or where to have fun. YOU decide.

There, I've said it. Rant over :-)

Cheers,
Millsy

* only if you allow it to be!
** clearly not what I was really thinking.
*** NO, they do NOT own the HOBBY, just some IP, despite what they might think or say.