The Eagle & the Hedgehog

A scene from a hedgehog internment camp

Today, I have mostly been making hedgehogs.  This may seem like a strange occupation for a man of thirty six. However, Mrs. Kinch has longed for a hedgehog  these many long years.  Encouraging  hedgehogs to live in your garden is apparently the best, cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to keep slugs out of your garden.  Or at least ensuring those slugs that do make it inside your garden end up in a hedgehog. 

I'm not so sure about the environmentally friendly part.  I'm pretty sure Mrs Kinch would resort to napalm and firing squads if she thought it would solve her slug problem. 

Sadly, the only hedgehogs available for sale are African pygmy hedgehogs, which don't like the cold and are ludicrously expensive.  The home grown equivalent do not thrive when restricted to a walled garden as they need to roam freely for distances of up to a mile. 

Curiously well traveled creature, the Irish Hedgehog. 

So while it appears that Mrs Kinch is willing to practically anything to deal with slugs; she is unwilling to intern hedgehogs. 

 

The Lesser Spotted French Hedgehog

The hedgehogs I've been working on is the Lesser Spotted French Hedgehog. This is somewhat larger than the Irish variety and no where near as cute. I believe they originated in Germany, but I'm no naturalist. Young Gorman has been making D-Day like noises of late and sadly, such things require plenty of the above.  I has a set from Italeri, but they were sadly fragile things and broke practically as soon as I'd put them together.  I was profoundly unimpressed.  

Looking at the Memoir '44 scenarios in question, I realised that I'd need nineteen of the benighted things and that excluded many of the commercial options.  I simply wasn't willing to spend that kind of money. I needed something that looked the part, was cheap and was robust. 

I took a snips to some old GW sprues I had lying around. Trimmed them until they were roughly straight and cut them to size. They took polystyrene cement rather well.

Say what you like about Games Workshop, their plastic is rock solid. I left these overnight and they are solid as a rock. Time for a quick blast of black spray, a drybrush of gun metal and possibly some kind of wash of rust? 

In the mean time have a gander at this thing, a rocket ship which Young Savage is building for his heir. 

Which bears a remarkable resemblance to a certain famous rocket ship of days gone by. 

Why is the hedgehog wearing sun glasses?  Because Kinch made a hash of

 drawing his eyes. That's why. 

Now, no mention of hedgehogs could go by without Mrs. Kinch's hedgehog story. Some time ago, when Mrs Kinch was a small Kinch, such a small Kinch in fact, she wasn't even a Kinch yet, she was sent to a German school.  Mrs. Kinch is Irish and grew up in Ireland, but there was a strong chance that her family would be moving to Germany, so her parents decided that it would be no harm for her to get a head start on the language. 

So in school, she made something that looked a little bit like the hedgehog above, though probably considerably better.  I'm led to believe that the eggshells were stuck down with craft glue and there may have been gold stars involved. Records from that time are sketchy at best, but I choose to believe that my future wife produced a prince amongst hedgehogs.  She arrived home and proudly announced to her parents. 

"Mummy, look, I made an eagle!"

They told her it was very nice, but that it wasn't an eagle and she got rather upset.  Her father got very annoyed, "What the hell are we sending her to that school for? This is some pretty basic stuff."

And she became more tearful and distressed, 

An Eagle. 

"Mummy, look, I made an eagle!"

They told her it was very nice, but that it wasn't an eagle and she got rather upset.  Her father got very annoyed, "What the hell are we sending her to that school for? This is some pretty basic stuff."

And she became more tearful and distressed, but was absolutely adamant that she had made an eagle and not a hedgehog.  It was only after a further twenty minutes of argument, some throwing things and full blown tantrum - that Mrs Kinch's German speaking father suddenly realised what was going on.  His daughter was not suffering from some kind of mental illness, nor had she made an eagle. 

An Igel

She had made an igel or a hedgehog in German and had never heard the word hedgehog in English. 

And with that cautionary tale about of the many perils of bi-lingualism, I shall wish you all a good night. 

*And I know I will. 

Victorian Volunteer Regimental Name Generator.

A fine body of men, click below to discover the name of this august corps

I have been advised by no less an authority than the Reverend Michael Peterson as follows,

"Any unit that can mix Place Name+Utility+Weapon (e.g., Singapore Telegraph Howitzers) is a unit I'd want to be part of."

With an endorsement like that, who could but revel in the possibilities presented by such a military formation? In that spirit, I offer you the Victorian Volunteer Regimental Name generator. 

Please click on the link above to call this enthusiastic amateurs to your colours. 

Portrait of the author as a young Wargamer

Kid pictures are, of course, the last refuge of the scoundrel.  I count Medieval Lego men, Prince August homecasts and possibly some Britains knights in there somewhere.  The siege tower is long gone, handed on to younger cousins, but the fort remains on top of the shelf in the War Room. 

Seems silly really, how at the ripe old age of seven or eight, I cracked the complexities of siege games - something which has resolutely eluded me nearly thirty years on.  A testament to the virtues of simplicity I suppose. 

Just a spot of unseemly gloating

r

This arrived this morning - which I am inordinately pleased with. Now as it happens, this is the fifth Command & Colours Napoleonic box I've bought from GMT games over the years.  

General Du Gourmand always orders the same stuff - sometimes later than I - and has always received his first. Not only that, but my box was on every occasion seized by Customs for extra taxes. 

But not this time. 

Artists impression of Kinch at this point. 

The votes are in

Well the votes are in...

...and it looks like Tomo takes the palm. 

Tomo, could you leave a comment (which I won't publish) with your email address, please? I'll get in touch with you to arrange your prize. 

Doesn't he look fine?

(click to embiggen)

In a vague attempt to drag this back to something related to wargaming, this is a picture of a rather excellent French Guardsman.  This chap is currently in Hungary having been painted by a pal of Krisztians. He will be making his way to me before too long. He looks fantastic, just the right amount of swagger - I would recommend clicking on the picture to have a closer look.  The figure itself is a 1/16 scale kit from Miniart. 

If looks could kill...

After I handed in my last assignment a couple of weeks ago, I managed to sneak away for a convivial one with General Du Gourmand and Unlikely McKenzie. We were about to leave when Du Gourmand strayed us with a round of port.  The chap that delivered them to the table said that it was the first time that he'd ever been asked for that particular potable, except one lady who would order it with a blue Wicked and then mix the two. 

The offending article

Du Gourmand as he is a vile Bonapartist decided that this was too good not to try and promptly did so. McKenzie and I were very much of the opinion that this is not the done thing, which is what prompted the photo above. 

Rest assured we formed hollow square and had Du Gourmand flogged before the regiment. 

And after that distressing thought, I shall leave you with an image 

of the Judges taking a well deserved rest.

A panel of learned Judges

The panel of Judges

So I mentioned previously that I needed some means of adjudicating between the worthy contestants. Dice were suggested by a party who shall remain nameless.  Dice would be entirely inappropriate as they would be completely random.  What this situation requires is a detailed and rigorous appreciation of the merits of the case.  With that in mind I have selected a panel of two learned Judges to give their opinion. 

The Voting

The Judges have reviewed each answer in depth and will mull over them this evening. They will then cast a vote for the contestant they think is most deserving. 

Whichever bowl is empty tomorrow - shall be judged to be the winner!

Judges decision

I will have to plead to being up to my neck in coursework and work over the last few weeks, but some of you may recall we had a competition here not so long ago. 

Our entrants were

1. Steve the Wargamer
2. The Celtic Curmudgeon (spoiled ballot)
3. Tomo
4. The Mad Padre
5. Archduke Piccolo

Of the above, the Celtic Curmudgeon is out because he didn't answer the question and Mad Padre is also out because he did not get the question right, leaving us with.

1. Steve the Wargamer
2. Tomo
3. Archduke Piccolo

Now these are all fine answers, but I'm damned if I can slip a knife edge between 'em. Watch this space - I will find a way to distinguish between them. I will have to refer this to the judges. Final answer by Monday at the latest.

Liebsters

Ok - I'll admit, it's an old photo. 

I may have put on a few pounds here and there. 

The Liebsters are doing the rounds again and though I was pretty sure I'm inelligible, I was nominated by Polemarch and Alaistar, so thank you very much gentlemen.  I regret it has taken me so long to get around to responding - I can only plead the exigencies of the service. 

Polemarch is a rum character, who has to the best of my knowledge never posted a single picture of a toy soldier on his blog - which begs the question is he even a blogger at all?. He has won the Monthly "Wargames blog most likely to send me scurrying towards a dictionary" Award for the last twelve months running.  He also has me reading Kant, which made my Daddy very happy, so thanks again there. 

Alaistar is a self described "Guardian reading lefty" and he is very fond of Joy & Forgetfulness, so I'm going to have to have a sit down and a long hard think about where it's all gone wrong. But in the mean time, you could do a lot worse than comb through "A Wargaming Gallimaufry" where Alaistar cracks out a truly respectable number of games, including some with his son, which is no mean feat.  One additional kudo is awarded for enjoying Donogh's "Classified" Force on Force scenarios.   In fact the thing that strikes me about the blog is the sheer variety of stuff on there. 

Each nominator had their own list of questions, so I just answered both. 

Why did you start blogging?

To be honest, I started blogging because I liked reading blogs. That and I was having difficulty with a novel (finished, but still unpublished) that I was trying to write.  I tend to keep blogging to keep my hand in and it's sort of grown from that.  That said, I've had more paid writing work as a result of the blog then I've ever had before, so it's been a success in that respect. 

Though, I think we can all agree - I would rock this look. 

If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?

There is a streak of Puritanism that runs through the hobby that deeply irritates me. I like historical games, I like games with cards, I like in the words of a very fine blog, the things I like.  I'm not a fan of steampunk or weird World War Two, though I quite like 40K, which I will accept contains a considerable dollop of both. What I find baffling is chaps who spend their hobby time running down that part of the hobby that they don't like, rather than extolling the virtues of the bits that they do like. 

My good chum The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie once coined the phrase, "Stop, stop, you're enjoying it wrong!" to describe this particular approach.  

What is best in life? 

 God's love, books, cats, Mrs. Kinch (the pearl of all her sex), friends, proper work, music.

Major Tom choose incorrectly 

(picture stolen from I'm not sure where exactly) 

Fame or fortune? 

Difficult one. Mrs. Kinch and I once sat down and wrote down all the things we wanted in life. It's a very useful exercise and one I go back to every so often. The thing that struck me was how little of what we wanted to do revolved around money.  Both of us would like to make a little more certainly, but it wasn't really a goal that we wanted to achieve. Some of our goals would certainly be easier to achieve if we had plenty of money, but it's no substitute for talent, character or determination. 

Fame would of course, be nice, but it is dependent on having done something noteworthy and the result is that suddenly your very trivial doing become matters of public interest.  As Major Tom found out, the papers want to know whose shirts you wear. 

I think on the whole, I'd take fortune, our local children's hospital could do with another wing. 

(click to embiggen)

What miniatures are you most proud of having painted? 

Probably this one and I will likely never do another. 

How do you deal with burn out?

I generally play a few games and spend time with my pals. Read books and lounge about with Mrs. Kinch. Go for a long walk.


Why is a raven like a writing desk? 

Because both are rarely used to write on anymore. 

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars definitely - it feels real to me in a way that Star Trek never does. There never seems to be any greed or laziness or Original Sin in the Star Trek universe, which is why I find it so unconvincing.  I used to put it down to a liking for the work of Leigh Brackett and CL Moore, but I think my father summed perfectly why I dislike Star Trek. "It's seems very silly to believe that everyone in the future will be rich, Western and secular."

If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be? 

Urgh. That is a toughie. You see, there are manufacturers that I like and manufacturers that make the figures I need to complete armies and often they don't correspond. Zvesda maybe or possibly John Cunningham. He's never left me short of a few lads. 

What is your favourite takeaway?

Well it definitely comes in a brown paper bag and involves tonic.  Not a massive fan of takeaway food. 

1.      How would you describe your blog?

A sort of open plan notebook of plans, jokes and other bits and pieces.  Certainly poorly edited. 

2.      How did you pick your blog’s name?

I was reading a book called "Achtung Swchinehundt!" by Harry Pearson which included a quotation from Anatole France.  It seemed to encapsulate everything that I want from wargaming. I read some Anatole France after, but sadly the experience did not live up to the quotation. 

I discovered from Mr. Pearson several years later that he has never read Anatole France and that he found the quotation in an old French book about toy soldiers. Never meet your heroes. 

I proclaim him to be a dastard and a vile Grauniad writing swine and I suggest going here to study his perfidy in greater detail. 

3.      Why did you start blogging?

See above. 

4.      How do you relax (if it's not blogging)?

Spending time with Mrs. Kinch. Writing. Reading. Wargaming. Playing with the cat. Eating out. Drinking. 

5.      Is figure painting a chore or pleasure?

A chore and a pleasure. I enjoy painting, but I do tend to sub contract quite a bit these days. 

6.      How do you deal with burn out?

See above.  

Terribly fond of her really. 

7.      What are the three things you cannot live without?

Mrs. Kinch. Faith. Books. Work.

8.      What was the last book you read and the last you bought?

Read: Last Argument of Kings (Black Powder 18th Century Supplement)

Bought: The Big Short by Michael Lewis 

Not this fellow. 

9.      Who is your favourite fictional character?

Sherlock Holmes in his literary incarnation. Mrs. Kinch is very fond the Cumberbatch Holmes, but I find him impossible to like - though I think Messrs Moffat and Gatiss have done an exceptional job of re-imaging . The Robert Downey Junior Holmes is rather good though. 

I really enjoyed the first season of Sherlock, but to be fair Cumberbatch's portrayal is very different to Conan Doyle's character. Sherlock is a man who is utterly cut off from every finer feeling except the need to know things.

Conan Doyle's character was a bohemian genius. Difficult and often prickly, he maintained relationships, cared about society, his country and the wider world in a way that Cumberbatch's Sherlock would be completely incapable of. I know which I would prefer as a friend.

10.   Ball point, rollerball or fountain pen?

For preference fountain pen, but in work ball point as fountain pens rarely thrive in rain. 

Now for nominations -

Honourable mentions to Tim Gow (for infinite invention and an admirable sense of humour), Bob Cordery (for sheer variety), Lee (for his tenacity and beautiful paintwork) and Ben (for his singular devotion to the Napoleonic period - would that I could be as faithful to a single period).


MC Monkey Dews Miniature Games - Mr. Monkey Dew is a distinctly odd fish. I'm the sort of fellow that doesn't like Shakespeare when he's been messed with (like for example when they make Hamlet a girl or decide to set the Tempest in a super market) and MC MDs blog is a cavalcade of Napoleonic battles fought by orks, talking dogs and other strange creatures. This is the sort of stuff calculated to leave me cold - but the thought he puts into it, the careful presentation, the charm with which MC MD writes will win you over, even if you've never fancied a French elf.  Read some of his battle reports deeply and you'll find a greater commitment to trying to understand black powder battle than many blogs that obsess over hats and gaiter buttons. You should also have a look at some of his rules writing efforts. Recommended. 

Obscure Battles - I only recently discovered this blog and it is very fine. I imagine Jeff Berry, who works in advertising, as one of those impeccably turned out Don Draper sorts, who takes time out from drinking martini's and selling washing powder to pen detailed, idiosyncratic and beautifully illustrated articles on battles that take his fancy.  Updated once a month or so, Jeff substitutes signal for noise and is always worth reading. Run, do not walk and address yourself to this blog. 

Lead Plague - Jean Baptiste's Lead Plague blog is full of beautifully painted miniatures and interesting stuff. There are lots of blogs like this, what makes JBs blog so different is his transparent love of the hobby and his wonderful sense of humour and whimsy.  Show me a Frenchman who sculpts a knight riding a giant chicken into battle and I will show you living, breathing proof why the French are the finest of fellows and the best of foes. JB will just make you happy. 

British Audio Books - This blog differs from all the others in that it is a commercial venture, albeit in a cottage industry sort of way.  The owner, the magnificently named Mr. Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot, records, producing and sells audiobooks, the sort of audiobooks that no one else is doing - like the memoirs of Wellingtons Judge Advocate General, Oman's History of the Peninsular War as well as 1930s science fiction. He is also a wargamer and has produced a number of board wargames. Check him out. 

Cold War Gamer - If you are interested in Cold War wargaming, there are lots of excellent websites, like Cold War Hot Hot Hot and Winter of '79 that I've written about before, but I think Cold War Gamer is special even in that field. Andy's specialty is a hypothetical World War Three scenario in Central Europe in the 80s. His blog is updated about once a month or so, but the sheer quality of what Andy produces make it always worth waiting for. His standard of modelling is very high, though I think I prefer his pithy essays on Soviet operational art and how the British army (the author is a former serviceman) did it's business in the 1980s. A class act all around.

So, having picked my nominees, there has been some headscratching to settle on questions.

1. You have a particular style of wargaming, how did you fix on it and why does it appeal to you? 
2. A lot of blogs tend to peter out after a dozen posts or so.  Your endurance stands out. What has kept you in the game? 
3. Time and money no object. What is your dream wargames project?

4. What was the last book you read and would you recommend it?
5. Smoker or non smoker?
6. Our shared hobby is full of some pretty odd characters. Whose the strangest chap you've ever come across through wargaming?

7. Figure painting. Pleasure or chore?
8. What is your preferred tipple?
9. Do you have a prefered ruleset or did you write your own? How did you settle on it?

10. Would you say you are a club wargamer or a loose association of friends sort of operation?
11. Are you "out" at work - would your non wargaming friends know about your hobby?

Weapon of Kinch Distraction

There are few gifts I count more highly than the gift of distraction.  I live in the world, but try hard not to be of it.

This was a gift from a friend of mine that I built while I was ill.  It's cat bothering possibilities are endless and I've been flinging treats the length of the garden for several days now.

Great fun.

Comrades, the scales have fallen from my eyes!

I wish to hereby make a statement of my guilt. I do this freely and without any previous torture, especially not torture involving punches in the arms or threats that I be taught to play "Flames of War". 

It is without doubt true that I am and have long been an agent of the Judeo-Christian-Trotsky-Fascists.  I have foully and wantonly brought Public Holidays into disrepute and sabotaged all attempts to keep "Collective Blog Number 417: Joy & Forgetfulness" about the wargaming. 


It has been brought home to me that Easter is just another public holiday, the transcendent joy that I felt yesterday was nothing but an illusion and that this blog has drifted dangerously from the right path.

There have been drunken duels with firearms, the possibly felonious impersonation of an official of the Third (or possibly the Fourth) Republic and unwholesome activities involving hats. 

My crimes speak for themselves and I can only await condign punishment. 

I took my orders directly from Lord Trotsky Siegfried Von Jesusovitz decoded in a series of YouTube Videos altered to ensure the counter-revolutionary subtext would be subtly obscured and only visible to the initiated. Other times, I took my directions, each more counter-revolutionary than the last, from mecha-hitler and the Mad Monk of the Frozen North. 

All of these accusations I acknowledge.

However, I must refute the allegation that I was the one who ok'd the movie "The Lovers Guide: Don't Roll a One Edition" for general release. Even a criminal such as I could not do that without a chill of the spine.

I humbly throw myself on the judgement of the court. I ask for no clemency as I know I do not deserve it. However, it is important that I draw to the attention of the collective to those  within its ranks whose disgusting activities must stamped out.

Comrade Rob Dean has been wantonly undermining the great wargaming dream for many years, including in his blog vile images of his "children", "ball room dancing" and so called "bread".  I only rejoice that my denunciation will led to the end of this madness. 

Comrade Chasseur is an even more dangerous criminal, because while his blog is superficially "..about the wargaming..", he pollutes its noble purity with "book reviews" and some patriarchial nonsense called, "Fathers Day." 

Comrade Itinerant is another superficially model comrade. He blogs about wargaming almost exclusively - but lo! What is this?  Here we find several posts worthy of attention, "Charity Water" and "Trademarks" . Mark my words Comrades, this is only the tip of the iceberg and conceals a vaster conspiracy. 

Comrade Prometheus in Aspic was one of the ring leaders of our Counter-Revolutionary orgies of excess and idolatry.  Not only does he frequently blog about about "Hooptedoodle" and "Justin Bieber", but in our private counciles he...well I will spare the court the pure indecency of this monster's thoughts.

"Lady" AlFront, a notorious drunk and transvestite, this former worker is now under the
thumb of capitalists and ravagers of worker's women. Fascist leanings and a self confessed inability to tell
right from left show this man to be a distinct danger.  This viper in human form lures innocent bloggers to his blog with posts about wargaming and then jams the knife of "gardening" , "book reviews" and crime upon crimes, "christmas", into their defenceless backs.

Finally, I turn to the most foul and deceptive creature I have ever met.  In my long career of infamy I have never seen such nausea inducing political corruption as that which pours forth as bile from the creature I name below. 

Comrade Cordery , feared even amongst Judeo-Christian-Fascist-Menshevik circles, this man poses a severe risk to children and livestock. He has been known for many years as a decrepit and debauched rakehell and gadabout, whose Portable Wargame is nothing more than a front to deceive upright Comrade into reading his crazed diatribes on "Detective Fiction" and "Airsoft."

But though I have grown old in evil and am long schooled in treachery, nothing prepared me for the sheer gut wrenching atrocity of his manifesto, "What I did on my holidays"

Would that I could but kiss the bullet that frees me from his foul clutches. 

As my final words know that I shall curse the very earth onto which this foul being was spilled.

As my final act,  I ask that all these criminals named above be treated appropriately by the Blogging Collective. 

Joy & Forgetfulness will cease publication forthwith, 

Collective Blog Number 417: Joy & Forgetfulness will continue in its stead. 

(with grovelling apologies to Dr. Alex O'Connor)

NOTE: This post was meant for yesterday, but was not posted due to me being an incompetent boob who went out for drinks on his birthday without checking first.

Leprecon - Part One

Wallace & Gromit close in on the Telly Tubbies

Leprecon was a great success with over two hundred at the con, some great games and generally a very good atmosphere. I'll be putting up some pictures over the next few days - but I think special mention has to go to the Wild Geese Wargaming Club's Telly Tubbies Game. This was run a number of years ago, but the thinking behind it is this. 

The suits at RTE have cancelled all children's television programming barring the Telly Tubbies because their success makes all other programming superfluous. The now out of a job characters decide to take matters into their own hands and descend on the Tubbies in order to kidnap them and hold them to ransom, trading the captive Tubbies for renewed contracts. 

The South Park boys advance 

I'm not entirely sure what children's show these are from, Noddy I think? 

Of course, the other characters had exactly the same idea - so what follows was a tense game of "Catch the Tubby" with quite a bit of internecine strife. 

Hammer Smurf goes in for the kill

The band close in, working out very quickly that the randomly moving Tubbies are much easier to stomp into submission if they can be cornered. 

Eeeh Gromit! Smurfs!

The South Park Boys advance while Thomas & Co chase a running tubby towards the table edge. 

The fabulous Duck brothers - their purpose was obscure

The horror - the horror 

This was an extremely silly game and great fun. I believe the South Park Boys & the Band shared the honours at the end of the day, while the Smurfs and Wallace & Gromit had succumbed to mutual annihilation. 

Curiously enough this is the rare example of a game that I enjoyed, that doesn't have me considering a new period. Well done to the Wild Geese. 

Leibster Awards

Gentlemen, 

The Liebster Awards are doing the rounds at present - I was nominated some days ago and have rather churlishly failed to respond until now.  All I can plead is the exigencies of the service, which have kept me away from hearth, home and laptop, for the last few days. My phone certainly serves as a blog reader, but it is a poor means of actually writing an entry. Pardon gentles all - to be honest, I was just numb with cold and tiredness when I got home and did little more than eat and let Mrs Kinch pour me into bed. 

Firstly, I am reliably informed that Liebster Awards means "favourite blog". I don't speak hun, so I shall have to rely to PanzerGruppenBossen Tim "Siegfried" Gow's translation as he apparently does. This, I think we can all agree, only makes him more deeply suspect.  

But firstly the critics said, 

FireyMonkeyBoy showing his years, Stokes's hairline is fighting a valiant rearguard action. 

(Tim Gow was unavailable at the time this photograph was taken - or may be disguised as a stick) 

The critics said,

"Mostly focused on 1/72 napoleonics, Kinch's graceful writing expresses the best of old school gaming.  Pipe in hand, he sets out to give the French a good kicking, and if a glass of port or three are ingested along the way, all the better." - FireyMonkeyBoy

Wargaming, alcoholism and xenophobia - MonkeyBoy cuts to the very heart of this endeavour. 

"Conrad Kinch's excellent blog provides a safe haven from reality.  Game reports and figure painting posts are interspersed with travelogue and silliness." - Tim Gow

Sniff - I feel one of Joy & Forgetfulness's strengths is a commitment to gritty realism. I see myself as the Brecht of the wargaming world. 

A well-written, entertaining, and sometimes hilariously funny wargaming blog written by one Conrad Kinch, noted wargamer, pipe-smoker, author, and legal scholar.  His wargaming-related scribblings have appeared, among other places, in Battlegames and the sadly defunct Classic Wargamer's Journal.

 Sadly defunct indeed. It was a great magazine - I always enjoyed it. Legal scholar? Forsooth!

My thanks to the critics. 

The rules are as follows, 

"Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.

Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!"

Now as it happens, there are quite a few Leibsters going around and I did actually sketch out a short list while I was incommunicado, so what I've done is pick five (which wasn't easy) and added honourable mentions for the chaps I would have picked, had they not gotten one already. 

Honourable Mentions. 

Firstly, Lee at NapoleonicTherapy. Lee is a gifted painter and a man who knows what he wants. But unlike some other gifted painters, he plays game (lots of games!) and that is the crux of the matter so far as I'm concerned. A cracking blog - heartily recommended. 

The Mad Padre needs no introduction. Less "Jam & Jerusalem" and more "Skirmish Wargaming & Salvation". 

Ross McFarlane - quite simply the man is an inspiration.  There are days I just want to strand him in a scrap metal yard. I guarantee within two weeks, he'll be playing the War of 1812 using homemade Britains knockoffs cast from moulds made of out of old sparkplugs and prayer. A chap of infinite invention. 

Donogh McCarthy more than anybody keeps me honest. He restrains my crazier impulses ("We need to build a four storey twelve foot long space hulk") and supports my slight less cracked ideas ("We can do Gettysburg in a day right?"). Mrs Kinch refers to him as my "Wargaming Wife."

Alfront or Dr Stephen Cullen if you want to use his stage name writes, "War Diaries of a Little Englander." This is a blog of shreds and patches, gardening, wargaming, modelling and politics mixed with humour. I've no idea what Alfronts actual views are, I'm beginning to think he may be some manner of anarchist, but either way it's an interesting read. 

Nominations

This is a collaborative blog and to be honest, I view that sort of thing as being very similar to interpretive dance or sociology, that is some sort of bizarre confidence trick that is aimed at avoiding real work. What you actually get is a blog that chronicles the modelling and gaming of a British Civil War in 1979. Written with a light touch and tremendously evocative of time and place, Winter of '79 is a class act.

Ben's ancestors were transported to the Antipodes for stealing a pig and yet, despite dodging venomous beasts and the daily trips to something known as "The Thunderdome" (which I believe is a chain of local supermarkets) he manages to write a wonderful blog devoted to Napoleonic wargaming and painting. One wonders where he finds the time. 

Deep in my curmudgeonly soul, I have a very soft spot for Warhammer 40,000, specifically Rogue Trader.  I had an Imperial Guard army in the dim and distant past and we got eaten by Genestealers with monotonous regularity. It's probably one of the few science fiction games I'd still play given the chance. Tales from the Maelstrom is a collaborative blog by some fellas who enjoy the semi-roleplaying anarchy of Rogue Trader and seek to recapture that particular genie. And snooks to anyone who says it isn't "official!" 

I haven't played Dungeons & Dragons in nearly twenty years and I still find FrDave's project fascinating. He is an Orthodox cleric apparently (damned if I know what flavour, Russian, Greek or Romanian) who loves Dungeons & Dragons and has been exploring his faith through the medium of roleplaying games. I always find his posts of the lives of saints interesting.

Harry Pearson is the author of Achtung Schweinhundt, a book that I really enjoyed. If you don't have it, buy it or get a loved one to do so, Christmas is coming up after all. I got four copies from family and friends the year it came out. His blog over at Parum Pugna is concerned with Ancients specifically ancient Ancients, Hinton Hunts, Rose, Garrison, etc. The battle reports are always a highlight for me.  He may write the Guardian, but overall he's a good egg.


Three Blogs that I wish were updated more often, so I just went ahead and nominated them anyway - it might poke them into posting. 

John Curry is one of the unsung heroes of our hobby. Editor, Maid, Chief Bottle Washer and Chief Petty Officer of the History of Wargaming Project, John spends his time collecting and republishing old sets of wargaming rules, books about the hobby and generally squirreling out information of interest. 

I have never regretted buying one of his books. 

Old John is a friend who I met through the Old School Wargaming list and is now a regular face at the larger Irish conventions. He combines wargaming with being a spiv and would probably give Harry Lime a run for his money, should the old boy take a break from flogging penicillin and decided to move some Hinton Hunts "Only one previous owner boss and he always rolled sixes." Old John has a sideline in 20mm metal figures, most of which you can see on his blog. 

Arquinsel's Project Arnhem blog has been sadly quiet for several months, he does however manage to write about putting kits together in a manner that doesn't make me despair, which is an achievement enough. His wardrobe leaves something to be desired though. There's a lack of tweed and corduroy that gives one pause.