Hasslefree Miniatures

So, as well as being a PC gamer, I am also a bit of (well, OK, a lot of!) a miniature junkie. No, not miniature bottles of whisky - although I am rather partial to that - I mean toy soldiers. I recently put in my second order with Hasslefree Miniatures, and they came through Friday. I describe myself as a miniature junkie rather than a wargamer because I do a hell of a lot more painting of my toy soliders than I do playing games with them.

I really love the figures that Kev White sculpts, and appreciate the availability of miniatures that are not just a part of a regular "army" like many other companies can supply. A good example is this Lab Technician who I am really looking forward to painting. Hasslefree's range also contains many female miniatures, which is not that rare amognst small companies of this kind, but what makes Hasslefree different is that they produce a normal range of women, who are not impossibly proportioned (even if they are sometimes heroically proportioned. Liberty and Jo are great examples - but I only have Liberty sat on my paining desk, so far!

As soon as I have finished painting a Hasslefree miniature, I'll try and get a photo of my results up! In the mean time, it is back to my 6mm Viking Hoard!

Victoria PC Strategy Game

So, being a bit of a strategy-game head, but getting bored of the standard resource gathering variation-on-a-theme that has been around since Command and Conquer, I've found myself for the last few months playing, Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun. I spend an hour (or often an hour and a half) at lunchtime going back to the 19th century in order to conquer the world again.

The main difference I have found with this game is the sheer amount of gameplay available: I've got over 100 hours out of it so far, and I still feel I've got quite a long way to go before I feel I've got everything out of this game.

OK, so I admit that it is quite a complex game to get your head around, and takes a couple of abortive test games to get your head into, and there is no tutorial - but once you've got it, Victoria is really worth the effort, if you like a non-standard, complex strategy game.

If anyone else has experience of this game, post a comment!

New Blog, then

OK, so this is yet another new blog out in there in the inter-verse. However, it is my first blog, so it is special to me, even if not to anyone else.

If you like the random thoughts that I post. Let me know. If you don't like them, let me know and then find someone else's blog to read.

I'll think of something more interesting to post shortly - at least I hope it'll be more interesting :-)