Far Side Newsletter issue #2

Musings of a traditional summer burn out...


Summer season. The months Belgium is soaked in rains, work goes from extremely busy to extremely calm overnight, and I suffer from the traditional summer burn out in the hobby. Don`t ask me why, it`s a yearly thing on all three accounts.

I guess it has a tat to do with most opponents being away on exotic holidays, forums falling quiet, summer festivals and more of the likes, but it also a good period for me to finally clear out Lead Mountain and stuff everything in big boxes for the Crisis bring and buy, only to be promptly forgotten about when that time comes. Don`t ask me why, it`s a yearly thing.

Sooo, what`s happening in the meantime in our little corner of the clubhouse, where `brave, yet slightly deranged` souls game around and launch crazy ideas. Some get picked up, some dwindle down, some never take off...

Djoef 4: Allaaah Ahkbar

The yearly Babylon 5 competition is suffering this year. Most people seem to just be `gamed out` in the venerable ACTA system, being unable to muster the mojo for throwing themselves in for a longer period of time.
This doesn`t only happen with the ACTA clubcompetition though, it seems to be an overall trend at the moment with all kinds of ideas being bounced around and to much choice out there, resulting in not being able to focus on something. I know, I have it too, mea culpa Sgt Looney.
We`re 4 months down the road now in the Djoef, but not even half the battles have been played, I guess our organiser is going to have to do some serious armbending to get the motor back on track.
For me personally, it is a small flaw in this years `engine` of the competition that causes the issue, but if you don`t try something new, you don`t know, a few changes where made in order to prevent the amount of non plays last edition, we`ll just need to suggest and puzzle around some for next year.
Playing opponents twice is new, to even out a lucky win, but this seems to become an obstacle due to the fact there is also no `time limit` this year. People play their battles now till one fleet is completely wiped out, taking around 3 hours to play to completion on average and taking out the chance to get two games under the belt an evening.

Project: Gundanium!

The show and convention project of the Far Side who will finally hit the events scene in 2012, aiming at attending two or three shows in the neighbourhood. The rules have been tested for a first time last friday, and they base engine of a fast paced, video / anime style battle seemingly is spot on in time issues, allowing to play 6 x2 demo games on an average event duration, and still providing enough time for the team to have a stroll around for shopping, to grab a bite and get a smoke.
Now the process of finetuning the rules has begun, balancing between adding an extra layer without making the whole shabang to hyperdetailed for a swift game. I`m trying to keep the rules limited at first to:
* One pageside of A4
* Tops 5 minutes to explain the rules to players
leaving not much leeway to play with, so it`s a serious exercise.
Which doesn`t mean that more detailed rules are being develloped side by side with the demo rules though, detailing more types of Gundams, weaponry and abilities, all based on the series...

To Appomatox and Back!

As regiments are being formed slow and steadily in the workspaces of three Far Siders, the Rank & File ACW `debut` in our group is drawing ever closer. The first scheduled battle is going to be somewhere near the end of september, as I`m painting up some scenery at the moment to linger around on a completely fictious battle... more about those in a later blog post.
The annual TSA megaweekend has also been announced, so the motivation is a notch higher at the moment, this year it will be Stone`s River that will be held on the huge table over the course of a full weekend, accumulating in again about 16 hours of actual gameplay.
And USS Monitor is being prepared as well hehehe...

J-Craze continues

Apart from the Project Gundanium, more japanese anime based models of my collection are going to see the daylight and the battle reports in the near future. I am relaunching the 6mm Future War Commander campaign this auntumn, with a smaller scaled one that takes off where the previous one crashed spectacularly.
In the `finale`, the alien invaders are launching a desperate all out orbital drop against a dug in humanity, and it will be marked by a shorter duration and smaller grid map then the over ambitious plan of before.
The full fluff and details will be posted here once the dust settles over Djoef and an actual starting date has been decided upon, but the first `rule refreshing` battles are already being staged by various Far Siders.

Tap Tap Tap

The hit at the moment in our group... the return of Magic: The Gathering. Expect some Far Siders to try a hand (pun intended) at some small scale local events, only to try not to finish the very last for me. My play is outdated, my `ideal deck` hopelessly caught up by the other colours, but the sheer irritating factor still exists. Blue Forever ;)

But What About...

So that brings us to the sad part of `what is hot, and what is not` overviews... the games in urgent need of mouth to mouth, hence they die and become forgotten.
On the Pulp front, not much is moving anymore. Where Heroes Dare! is standing on a shelf of rulebooks gathering dust, alongside the 7TV rulebook that even never has left the shelf. SuperSystem, though the first battle we tried for the rules was a humongous amount of fun, hasn`t been touched ever since again.
Warhammer 8th Edition, or my `Project Asrai` from last year, has died spectacularly, my forces either already gone or going to the BnB on Crisis.
Uncharted Seas sees a lot of talk of getting a go at, but these little guys are tired of waiting and are on the shortlist considering to become adopted by someone actually playing the rules.



If I`ll ever play naval again, it`ll be with ironclads (one Thumbling Dice fleet is being undercoated as we speak btw, small, cheap, ideal...). Takes less space and less investments.

So on to Crisis and 2012 then!

It`s still a far way off, but some plans are made already. For the new Lead Painter`s League when it comes around, I have already drawn up a shortlist of entries to do. I`m sticking to the plan of only painting models during the competition itself, but I`m going to try and create the backgrounds all by making actual paintings, so I`m going to have a start on some of those already. A bit like the Dune entry from last year, only hopefully a tat better.
The Crisis shopping list has also been drawn up in a `version 1` so far, consisting mostly though off hobby materials (paints, inks, brushes etc...) and some ACW boxes from the Perry`s and some Redoubt odds and ends (well, lot of odds and even more ends) like limbers, command groups, things like that and a few Dark Sword Ice and Fire models... no new periods, era`s or crazes for me anymore! They tend to linger around before being shipped off to some other player who actually has a need for them.

Soooo, thats it for the Far Side an my view on what`s going on in the little group. Is this accurate? Nuhu, just what I tend to see, but I`m sure if they have comments, they`ll voice them and I`ll be getting a spanking once again...