Return From Adelaide
Wouldn't you know it; my old camera I took to Adelaide failed to work so no pics ladies and gentlemen. (Look up the blog on my reading list, Pinnoy Toy Soldiers for another report and some pictures - well done Larry).
I stayed with Steve and Sue and Bryan and Lynne. As indicated in earlier ACOTS posts Steve has a massive and varied toy collection. Bryan has a large collection of converted Napoleonic 1/32 designed for wargames but he hasn't actually gamed with them. As Bryan lives by the beach I got a few invigorating swims in too.
The wargames at Bob's place with his massive wargaming collection, included three separate simultaneous games of American Civil War. My Confederate force got a drubbing with Tony's monstrously good dice rolling. All I had left at the end was a cannon! The other Confederates fared somewhat better but it was a general Federal victory on all tables.
The second day at Bob's featured an ancients game which saw victory for Rome against Carthage. This time I thrashed the Carthaginians under Andrew's command. It didn't help them that a force was diverted to help Tony's Carthaginians against Steve's Romans down the other end of the table. Steve just pulled in his lines and fought off all comers but the bulk of the heavily armoured Carthaginian relief force didn't get there; it was just too far for them to move. Meanwhile I concentrated most of my lights on my left where they advanced to outflank and overwhelm the enemy lights. My nediums and heavies also advance in the centre and right flank.
Getting the dice roll to let the Romans set up last did help here. In other places I set up little ambushes so that when any of my forces were pushed back my other units could join in the melee. Angie, Steve's wife provide yummy provisions. The last day of wargames was hosted by Steve and it was decided to play WW2 board games as the day was especially hot and the games were going to be pirate ship games outside. Steve's wife, Sue provide a delicious lunch.
We also visited a collector with a displayed King and Country collection of incredible historical variety from ancient Egyptians to Tiger tanks. As the figures purchase price varies from $50 to $100 each (and that is excluding vehicles, ships and planes) some of us were doing some calculations and came up with some amazing financial figures, enough to equate to the cost of buying a substantial house.
We did have a great time with people coming from Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. Bob partially hosted the weekend and, as usual, had his own sales tables with thousands of figures. I bought quite a bit from him as well as from the Military Hobbies shop the next day. My biggest purchase was somewhere around six hundred English Civil War figures from Larry for $300. He decided that with work committments he wouldn't get around to painting them all. It remains to be see if I do but they are destined to merge with my 'modernising' Bogavanian and Beersteiner forces. Some of them I am also going to convert into matchlock armed Chinese Boxers.
All the figures, along with some metal pencil sharpener cannons and a Tiger tank from CTS went into my backpack. I had to dispense with boxes and containers to accomplish this feet but I like to condense luggage for speed of movement and to reduce likelihood of leaving something on planes, trains and buses.
Coming through customs I forgot about the cannons secreted among the troops. They did cause the security to scrutinise their scanners but they accepted that they were part of a toy soldier filled pack. I would have put them on the checked in luggage but Jetstar charges if the checked in baggage was not indicated with the initial booking, something I'll remember to do in advance next time
Then came the pack weight issue. Seven kilogram carry on is the limit. I was easily under that coming to Adelaide but things had changed going back! This timethe total with small shoulder bag included was 10 kilograms. They wanted to charge me sixty odd dollars ($35 if I had done it on line that day). No famin' way Bonzo! I don't go around chucking money down the drain.This baggage weight was despite me wearing nearly all my clothes. So I did some re-arranging, turfing more containers and odd bits of packaging, giving away two of my comics, and stuffed a sleeping bag liner - my emergency sleeping gear if I ever got stuck somewhere - my minimalist nod to 'survivalism', a couple of spare underwear and a couple of books into my many pockets - this is when a utility vest comes in handy. Then it was just on the seven kilograms, perhaps over just a tad. So after the acceptance tabs were stuck on the bags I put my pocketed items back in the pack! Come to think of it, if I wanted to be really cheeky I could have put the comics and a dumped clipboard back in too! But then I wouldn't want to tip the jet's weight too much causing it to crash because of a backpack full of toy soldiers!
We happy few be seeing each other and other collector cobbers next Easter with ACOTS at Bacchus Marsh Victoria. I'll post pics of my acquisitions in my next post
I stayed with Steve and Sue and Bryan and Lynne. As indicated in earlier ACOTS posts Steve has a massive and varied toy collection. Bryan has a large collection of converted Napoleonic 1/32 designed for wargames but he hasn't actually gamed with them. As Bryan lives by the beach I got a few invigorating swims in too.
The wargames at Bob's place with his massive wargaming collection, included three separate simultaneous games of American Civil War. My Confederate force got a drubbing with Tony's monstrously good dice rolling. All I had left at the end was a cannon! The other Confederates fared somewhat better but it was a general Federal victory on all tables.
The second day at Bob's featured an ancients game which saw victory for Rome against Carthage. This time I thrashed the Carthaginians under Andrew's command. It didn't help them that a force was diverted to help Tony's Carthaginians against Steve's Romans down the other end of the table. Steve just pulled in his lines and fought off all comers but the bulk of the heavily armoured Carthaginian relief force didn't get there; it was just too far for them to move. Meanwhile I concentrated most of my lights on my left where they advanced to outflank and overwhelm the enemy lights. My nediums and heavies also advance in the centre and right flank.
Getting the dice roll to let the Romans set up last did help here. In other places I set up little ambushes so that when any of my forces were pushed back my other units could join in the melee. Angie, Steve's wife provide yummy provisions. The last day of wargames was hosted by Steve and it was decided to play WW2 board games as the day was especially hot and the games were going to be pirate ship games outside. Steve's wife, Sue provide a delicious lunch.
We also visited a collector with a displayed King and Country collection of incredible historical variety from ancient Egyptians to Tiger tanks. As the figures purchase price varies from $50 to $100 each (and that is excluding vehicles, ships and planes) some of us were doing some calculations and came up with some amazing financial figures, enough to equate to the cost of buying a substantial house.
We did have a great time with people coming from Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. Bob partially hosted the weekend and, as usual, had his own sales tables with thousands of figures. I bought quite a bit from him as well as from the Military Hobbies shop the next day. My biggest purchase was somewhere around six hundred English Civil War figures from Larry for $300. He decided that with work committments he wouldn't get around to painting them all. It remains to be see if I do but they are destined to merge with my 'modernising' Bogavanian and Beersteiner forces. Some of them I am also going to convert into matchlock armed Chinese Boxers.
All the figures, along with some metal pencil sharpener cannons and a Tiger tank from CTS went into my backpack. I had to dispense with boxes and containers to accomplish this feet but I like to condense luggage for speed of movement and to reduce likelihood of leaving something on planes, trains and buses.
Coming through customs I forgot about the cannons secreted among the troops. They did cause the security to scrutinise their scanners but they accepted that they were part of a toy soldier filled pack. I would have put them on the checked in luggage but Jetstar charges if the checked in baggage was not indicated with the initial booking, something I'll remember to do in advance next time
Then came the pack weight issue. Seven kilogram carry on is the limit. I was easily under that coming to Adelaide but things had changed going back! This timethe total with small shoulder bag included was 10 kilograms. They wanted to charge me sixty odd dollars ($35 if I had done it on line that day). No famin' way Bonzo! I don't go around chucking money down the drain.This baggage weight was despite me wearing nearly all my clothes. So I did some re-arranging, turfing more containers and odd bits of packaging, giving away two of my comics, and stuffed a sleeping bag liner - my emergency sleeping gear if I ever got stuck somewhere - my minimalist nod to 'survivalism', a couple of spare underwear and a couple of books into my many pockets - this is when a utility vest comes in handy. Then it was just on the seven kilograms, perhaps over just a tad. So after the acceptance tabs were stuck on the bags I put my pocketed items back in the pack! Come to think of it, if I wanted to be really cheeky I could have put the comics and a dumped clipboard back in too! But then I wouldn't want to tip the jet's weight too much causing it to crash because of a backpack full of toy soldiers!
We happy few be seeing each other and other collector cobbers next Easter with ACOTS at Bacchus Marsh Victoria. I'll post pics of my acquisitions in my next post
Comments
Post a Comment