Not much time for posting lately, as I've been pretty busy between work and the military. I have been making slow progress on my Orcs. Not as much as I'd like, but I've been grabbing a few minutes here and there to get them further along. I think everyone will be disappointed when I finally post photos of them becasue with the amount of time I've taken on them they should be masterpieces. I assure you that they are not, but the more work I put in the happier I am with the way they're turning out. I think I will be sick of painting Orcs by the time I get done with this army.

My Warhammer 40k Battle Sisters army has been a thorn in my side for a long time. I'd really lost all desire to finish the army out, but I had a couple of units partially painted and felt some sort of obligation to finish the army. I found a way out when I saw a post on The Miniatures Page offering a leather-bound collector's edition of the Warhammer 40k rulebook in exchange for various figures. I offered up my Battle Sisters in exchange and the other poster accepted. So now I have a nice little book that I can set on my shelf, and I've rid myself of some excess lead weight. I really don't have any need for the fancy rulebook but it doesn't take up much shelf space.

I've been looking at the website for Tactical Solutions, the convention I plan on attending this year. Based on the list of games that will be played there I am considering building a few armies for DBA, as that seems to be a pretty popular game. It helps that a full army for the game can be purchased for $25-50 and only contains 12 stands of figures. DBA Big Battles are mentioned as well, which I believe are games in which each side controls three or more allied armies. There is also a Fantasy version, Hordes of the Things, which I've been interested in for some time now. I may have to grab up a couple of armies for that as well. One scary thing about this new plan is that adding it to my list of projects will mean that I am planning Viking armies for two different games in two different scales. I've got the 15mm DBA version and the 25mm Warhammer Ancinet Battles version.

The other day I was digging through my binders trying to find the binder containing the CAV 2 rules and I realized that I have a lot of rulesets in book form or printed out in binders. I don't consider myself to be an all-over-the-place sort of gamer, but the piles of rulebooks tell a different story. Rulesets and supplements just seem to multiply when I'm not looking. Just in the area around my desk I've got Battletech, Arc of Fire, Blood & Swash, Song of Blades and Heroes, Warhammer 40k and several army books, Warhammer Fantasy and several army books, CAV 1 and a CAV Recognition Guide, CAV 2, Mordheim, Warhammer Ancient Battles and the Armies of Chivalry supplement, a couple of Skirmish Campaigns books, Reaper's Warlord main book and a couple of the army books, and a whole shelf of various RPGs. That's a lot of different games, and I've got plenty of other books I'd like to accumulate when I've got some extra cash. I know there are plenty of old-timers out there who will look at my list and then laugh as they look at the several bookcases that hold their rules collections. Part of the wargaming hobby seems to be an uncontrollable compulsion to accumulate books about toy soldiers.