Salutations and Greetings
Hey guys! I joined a month or so ago but have been mostly in lurker mode. But I posted a picture and was asked to introduce myself so I’ll take a shot.
I consider myself an historical miniature gamer, although I’ve dabbled in the more mainstream stuff like Warhamer Fantasy, 40k, and Battletech. The last couple of years my main games have been Flames of War, Boltaction and Warhammer Ancient Battles. I have more armies for these and other historical periods than I’d really care to admit.
I’m a fairly average painter but very prolific, and paint or model at least an hour a day. I’ve been struggling with some eye issues (macular degeneration) which has slowed me down a bit, but I’m adjusting. I can see pretty well with glasses and a magnifying hood but it tends to produce headaches so I do quite a bit of work without completely seeing what I’m doing. I really love sculpting and greenstuff but most of my work has a sort of fluffy quality about it and sharp edges and “fierceness” are not easy for me. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on some of my sillier stuff like a baby beholder complete with rattle, binky and a frilly bonnet.
I have a small collection of GHQ 1/1200 Napoleonic ships that I’ve used a couple of times in the past, most recently with the “Trafalgar” rules but they mostly sit in the cabinet. I also spent the better part of the summer of 1977 playing the classic Avalon Hill’s Wooden Ships and Iron Men which has left a deep mark. The other formative gaming experience with sailing ships was with an earlier Computer game by TalonSoft called Age of Sail. I played the hell out of a couple of versions of that game at the end of the nineties.
I actually am not very “knowledgeable” about early 19th century naval stuff but am “educated” in the world of historical fiction. Hornblower when I was in my teens in the seventies, followed but Bolitho, Rammage and others over the years. I read the Aubrey Maturin stuff, maybe ten years ago and enjoyed it very much. So I guess I have a somewhat “fantasy” approach to the period but that’s ok I think. I did a bit of sailing in lasers and Hobbie cats when I was a teenager and that also so that has given me a few insights into the wind and sailing in general.
I’ve played maybe a half a dozen games of SOG so far and rather like it. I’d played Wings of War with my son and nephews a lot and I really like the maneuver card mechanism. I have to admit I’m not completely fond of the “chitty”-ness of SOG and find it a bit fiddly. One of the main reasons I came on this forum was to garner other peoples experience with the grease pencil, dice based combat and other alternatives. But I actually do like the graphical presentation of the ship and its status, so I’ll continue to ponder what tinkering might be done to make me happy. The fact that the game feels like it’s got some extremely great features and a few flaws, attacks me more to it. I guess I’ve always like to take stuff apart and mess with it
I actually don’t own a complete set of SOG stuff yet but I’m sure I’ll eventually succumb to a starter set. I dug out a few old GHQ and Langton sloops and brigs that were unbuilt in my pantry of old gamer junk and put together a few pirates and a “fire” ship. I passed these on to my friend, who is the local hobby shops SOG guy right now. I also built a rather silly and crude but nonetheless hilarious model of the Crimson Permanent Assurance a couple of nights ago which I’m hoping to play this weekend. I’d read a post about somebodies attempt at a pirate ship and they also came up with stats for the Monty Python “building” so I was inspired.
My actual name is Harold, the Seymour Glass thing is a JD Salinger reference that has been my internet anonymity cloak for pretty much ever.
Cheers and thanks for the welcome
Harold
