VOTE FOR VON

I know, I know, I've been neglecting you.  I've spent the last couple of months actually, y'know, being Frugal.  It's the not having any money that does it.  Most of the hobby I've done has been other people's, for money, although I did find the time for a quick Warmachine tournament and I do have a NEW PROJECT on the go too.  Incidentally, if you happen to have some models that you want painted and can't be bothered with doing yourself, drop me a line here or via GAME OVER and we'll have a chat.  I'm no Marike Reimer, admittedly (she's better looking), but I'm cheap, quick and tabletop quality.

Anyway.

I'm doing a thing, over at the House of Paincakes blog network, sort of a contest thing where the winner gets a weekly series in front of a larger readership than I have ever dreamed of amassing.  Have been for a while now.  Didn't want to talk about it on this blog because Posting About Blogging is something I try not to do.  Content uber alles, and all that.

On the other hand, failure to leverage available resources in a competitive endeavour is the mark of a nebbish who shouldn't have signed up in the first place.  And I do have a credible shot at winning, which was... unexpected.

AND, AND AND AND, if I win, I'll never write a post about 40K.  Everyone bar Loquacious on the ol' HoP does that, as do most of the blogs on the roll, and it's getting boring.  I won't cheat and do Warmahordes either.  Vote for me, and be guaranteed a shot of something different every week - might be WFB, a historical, a Specialist Game, an RPG, a board game, a book review, something that isn't 40K.  A vote for Von is a vote for diversity - and that's not something this straight white able-bodied British bloke ever thought he'd be able to say with a straight face.

So I suppose you should pop over to the International House of Paincakes and vote for me in this week's HoP Idol, so I can say more things like this, this,  this, and this.  No SPESS MAHREENS, ever.  Promise.

The Lion Roars!

I've returned safe and well from my trip up to Edinburgh last weekend; Mrs Frugal and I had a great time.  Of course, being the frugal gamer that I am, I made sure not to go over my gaming budget for the month whilst I was up there.  However, as I was technically ‘on holiday’ I was entitled to spend some of my ‘holiday money’ and I decided that rather than buying Mrs Frugal something nice or taking her out for a meal, I would buy myself a souvenir to remind me of my time north of the border.

I’d done a bit of research before traveling away and identified ‘Black Lion Games’ as the premier games retailer in Edinburgh.  I left Mrs Frugal picking out boxes of shortbread and went looking for it. 

I finally found it, and it looked like the dodgiest shop I’ve ever seen, if I wasn’t actively looking for it I’d have probably walked right past it.  It looks, to be honest, like a sex shop.  Judge for yourself:

Its well worth the trip though.  It may not be the biggest shop in the world, but it’s got a huge range of stock (miniatures, RPGs, boardgames, cards) and very friendly staff.  If you’re around the Edinburgh area, seek it out and tell them the Frugal Gamer sent you.

Here’s what I found in my hand after I left the shop:

Yes, like so many before me I have fallen foul of the temptation that is Warmachine.  And before anyone starts telling me that Menoth are a rubbish choice (they may well be) I decided on them as a starter force as I fancied something nice and white to paint to give me a break from all the dark and grubby miniatures I’ve been working on recently.  My poor eyes could do with a break.

So there you go, I’ve got some more miniatures to add to the unpainted pile and another set of rules to learn.  Maybe I’ll win some games at this one...

Happy Gaming

The Appy Gamer

Since starting this blog I’ve received a lot of emails, and I often busy myself in the evenings learning about products that promise to ‘Boost You’re Manhood’ or ‘Make sure she pleasure EVRY time!!!’.  Sometimes though, I like to relax and read an email relating to gaming.  One such message came to me last week from Thomas who has started a Frugal Gaming blog.  As well as adopting a ‘buy one, paint one’ approach (this is the ‘Wax on, wax off’ mantra of the Frugal Gamer) Thomas has also installed an app on his smartphone to track his spending.
 

Like many of you out there, I use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my finances (with general entries such as ‘rent’, ‘cat food’ and ‘bike maintenance’) and have now extended this to include my monthly gaming purchasing (remember that I’m planning to only spend £20 a month on gaming) so the idea of an app on my phone intrigued me.  Thomas recommended Daily Expense Manager by Tech Ahead for the Android OS.  After a little bit of internetting I found a similar app for the iPhone (or iPad, if you’re a real hipster) and I’ve started using it myself.

These apps are free and will help you track what you’re spending (often helpful, frequently scary) which can only be a good thing.  I’m going to give it a try for the next couple of months and see how I get on.  Why not try it too and let me know the results?

You may notice that I’ve gone over my budget this month, but hey, rules were meant to be broken.

 

Happy Gaming.

Time And Motion

At the dawn of my previous Frugal Year, I spent some time burbling on about the different kinds of investment we all make in our games.  I believe I've chewed your ears off about emotional investment more than enough already, 'specially if you're already a GAME OVER reader, and this blog tends to focus on money and time (indeed, the Frugal struggle is often expressed as convenience vs. expense, for example in choosing to make your own terrain/war machines/accessories or buying them).  One thing I haven't looked at too often, though, is how these notions all fit together.

I also recently had a dispute with m'colleague Neal (he of the pink Menite fame) about this.  I have, in the past, been known to be a bit stingy about away-days to play games.  I tend to think that the kind of money we spend on transport, accommodation, event admissions, food and the inevitable booze doesn't offer the world's best return on investment - after all, a tournament is over when it's over, and if you're anything like me, memories really don't last forever (some days, I can't even remember the word 'pencil', never mind anything complicated and intense like a tournament).  If I'm going to spend more than a fiver on something, I'd usually expect years of service out of it...

However, I've recently been forced to admit that spending modest sums - for instance, on attending club nights, which usually cost me about eight quid by the time you've factored in bus fares and entry fees - to ensure that the larger sums spent on miniatures actually result in said miniatures being used and not simply possessed for the sake of possession, might actually be worth a go.  I had a lovely time at Evesham today and it only cost me a tenner (well, it cost me twelve after I picked up some Epic Order dice to use as extra spell tokens ahd a plastic High Elf mage for conversion purposes, but shh!); realistically speaking, getting to use my Cryx against some nice new people with unfamiliar armies was probably worth the money.

At the end of the day, what's bought needs using, and the same old uses every time end up becoming stale and unfulfilling, like the yoghurt I had for breakfast yesterday.  In that same spirit of using stuff that I have rather than mindlessly accumulating possessions, I'm going to focus my gaming time and funds onto expanding and revitalising my Cryx army, adding a few new pieces to inject some interest into a collection that hasn't seen full use for quite a while.  The Cryxies will be visiting a few events this year; I'm not the biggest fan of tournaments, but my eyes are always peeled for things that aren't tournaments, and a bit of money spent on ephemeral experiences can't hurt if it means that the money I've spent previously continues to reward and return on its investment.

I'm also planning on putting to use something that's lived in the bottom of my bookcase for many moons, but never actually seen any love; Advanced Fighting Fantasy, which has been out of print for so long that it would be effectively irreplaceable if I parted with it, but which I've only ever tried to play once.  I've read and reread those books so often that they no longer amuse me in their own right, so let's try something crazy like actually running the game!

Finally, I'm going to make an admission.  Ready for this?  Here it comes...

I no longer have the time, or the inclination, or possibly even the ability, to paint in the volume and speed that I did four years ago.

Painting a new army, on the scale that a Games Workshop mainstream game requires for entry-level play, is simply too major an endeavour for me, and I'm too attached to the spectacle of gameplay to really enjoy playing with unpainted miniatures; so I'm attempting to make painting a minor endeavour by sticking to low-model-count mods of the game like Killzone.  If I do go so far as to start a new army for a Games Workshop game, it'll have to be painted with the minimum of effort; I might go so far as to suggest dipping, or possibly greyscale, with dashes of colour a la Sin City - how awesome would the Micro Art Studios Orks look painted up like they've escaped from a black and white war film, and how easy would that be to do with an airbrush and maybe a bit of blending?  I'll be trying to make a major endeavour into a minor endeavour, through careful choices of techniques and steady expansion.

At least, that's the plan.  You know what I am for plans.  I'll have to think about whether I'm actually going to go through with it... in the meantime, here's another picture of time in motion.  This one's for you, Lawrence: it's the Prague Astrononical Clock, in all its eldritch glory.