Other Partizan Loot

I have returned from my jaunt and Partizan and even better I have returned with loot. While I wait for the photos to upload to the world wide web I thought I'd jot my thoughts down. The show was back in the old venue nice and dry, although it was another sunny day so they would have got away with the tent. The lighting in the main hall was poor as always and there were a few awkward choke points as we gamers started to clump together as we flowed around the show. By the time I left it was thinning out and nice and easy to walk around.

There were a lot of great looking games this year, prehaps more though than previous although the standard is always high. Lots of WW1 and as always my favourites will be given away by the number of photo allotted to them.

My verdict is a good show.

The loot:

Warlord Games Black Powder supplement Rebellion - great value for money, twice the size of their other supplements for the same price. High quality content and well written.

History of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the Napoleonic wars book - yet to flick through

Osprey Campaign book Kursk 1943 Northern front - looks good , great illustrations and purchased as it had a map of Ponyri which is a 2 day game I'm attending at Stafford Games in October.

2 packs of Zvezda 1/72 WW2 German mine sweepers for the game in October

Crooked Dice goodness - Ghostbuster types, latest Dr Who Doctor lookalikes including the John Pertwee looking chap. Wonderful models.

3 x Rapid Fire ready to roll PzIV's with side skirts - again for the game in October. I may not use them but with the move looming if I do need them I have more of a chance painting them than making and painting my PSC ones.

The Wargames Eyrie planning

I've decided to write up my approach and eventual creation of my new wargames room(s). I am interested in seeing how what I set out to do compares with what I end up with. Megalomania versus reality.

My key objective is to not lose out on what I have already have which is my dream wargame space in the garage. A space which can host different size tables and lots of storage. This was achieved by using kitchen units around 2 walls and creating a 6ft by 4ft table in the middle with more kitchen cabinets. The layout supported a maximum size board of 12ft by 6ft which could be made in to a C shape with 2 additional 6ft by 4ft boards. I never used the C shape, which would have required moving storage boxes and crawling under tables to access. The layout also had 2 stations one for painting and one for making things. I never used these and took over the kitchen table in the house so I could be social, and watch the TV (this invasion was tolerated but not popular if I left everything out - apparently it stopped anyone else using the table to do things like eat). Of course, if I left things out I could do a bit of painting in between cooking. I did learn my lesson about cooking and trying to dip figures in Army Painter, followed swiftly by how and when to use glue accelerator correctly.

I started off placing my existing wargames boards and storage on to the plan created using Architect 3D Gold software and see what could fit where. This gave me an idea what free space I had. 

Next I went through the requirements I wanted, focusing how I wanted to use the rooms. I'm the kind of gamer that likes maximum storage and the largest board I can fit.  In my next post I'll lay out what my requirements are and how they fit into the rooms I have. I'll also include impacts from other important decision makers in the house.... (ominous drum roll)

My wargames' room planning tools

I must confess I was sold on the new house (when we eventually get there) when I was informed that I could have the top floor to replace my lovely 5m x 5m garage wargames room. The top floor being roughly smaller than 4 garages.

Extravagant it is but it is a large Victorian house with 4 floors that need a lot of work to restore it. It's a lot of space but I am not daunted that I can fill it. It's an old house without nice square rooms, or rooms on the same level or ceilings with the same height for that matter.

Tools that I am finding useful in planning the new Wargames Eyrie (couldn't resist giving the space a name) are a software application called Architect 3D gold and Pinterest. I confess I thought the Architect software was free, but I've just Googled it and apparently my wife has spent some money for planning our new layouts. I shall not complain or a light may be shone on my toy soldier addiction.

Architect 3D Gold by Avanquest has helped draw a plan of the floor and the different rooms and work out what tables, shelves, desks and chairs will fit. I'm no architect but it has really helped me plan what the space may become and I found it really exciting.

The next software tool I errr ... my wife found was Pinterest. An application that works on Google Chrome which allows you to capture pictures that interest or inspire you, or are of products you want and organise them in to albums or boards as the application calls them. It also allows you to search for boards other people have created, hence my discovery of other gamers' game rooms or ideas for games rooms. It also works on the iPad and iPhone.

As a note this tool has been great for planning ideas for all rooms in the house and providing discussion points to make decisions on styles and content. From a wargames point of view I have found boards of people planning armies pinning various pictures of the troops they need, board for terrain ideas, modelling tips, painted figures, and game ideas just to name a few. I've also found manufacturers' boards like Mantic and Foundry with pictures of their ranges plus future design ideas.