Eine kleine shopping trip

Hello again.

Yesterday saw your humble scribe out Christmas shopping, taking advantage of a day off work and no kids to chaperone to see what he could acquire for sundry individuals. Walsall was my centre of choice for two reasons:

1. I wanted a certain department store, for maximum gift choice options;
2. I fancied a look around Asgard Games. Just a look, you understand...

Having battered the plastic in said department store, I ventured up the hill to Asgard and was greeted with the jaunty ringing of the shop door bell as I entered, followed by a cheery "Hello!" from the proprietor, whose name I believe is Vince.

Asgard Games is an absolute mine of gaming joyfulness.

I went in with the intention of coming out with some Hurricanes (and possibly a corresponding squadron of German stuff) for "Blood Red Skies" and was prepared for a chance purchase or two in addition.

There were no hurricanes in stock.

BUT THERE WAS LOADS OF OTHER STUFF!!!

I have been eying this beauty for a little while now.

 "Strontium Dog". I saw the advert for the game a while back and was enthused. Now, bear with me, as my memory is starting to get suspect in some things (!), but is unusually hot in other areas...I have a very vague memory of a comic called "Star Lords" (I think) back in the late 70's. I have an equally vague memory of a certain Johnny Alpha appearing in that comic, which ran for all of about six issues. That first story saw Johnny shoot some perp and the shot fried all the flesh from the perp's bones, leaving just a skeleton. Johnny then attached a sort of beetle-shaped device to the skeleton and the chap re-appeared for questioning by our hero. Once that was done, Johnny flipped the device off and the perp' became a skeleton again. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! I am vague on where I saw the story, but believe my version to be true. Can anyone assist? This story had a massive impact on a kid used to "Look-In", "The Beano" and "Whizzer & Chips"! I should really have graduated from there to "2000AD", but went for "Match Weekly" and sometimes "Shoot!" to pursue my football interests instead...

Anyway, alongside such recent purchases as "Kill Team", "Necromunda", "Lord of The Rings", "WH40K" and various figures for different eras which are taking an age to get through as work and atmospheric conditions conspire against my painting time, Johnny has now joined the queue for brush attention. There are also other miniatures in the box, so I need to factor those into the schedule too.

Now this was always going to be on the cards at some point.

I have not played "Ghost Archipelago" yet, but remain enthused by the idea.

 Not having yet played "Ghost Archipelago", nor even "Frostgrave" for a good while, I am unsure exactly why I keep buying the different books. I like "Frostgrave" but, in truth, would probably have chosen "Ghost Archipelago" instead of it had it come out first. The reason for this is the lost tribes/ Conan Doyle-esque feel and, in gaming terms, lush and verdant is a lot easier and far more common than frozen wastes, so a one size fits all terrain option is a winner in this context.



This anthology of short stories also appealed.

I have not bought or read a short story anthology since picking up a copy of "The Collected Griselda" (as in the "Runequest" heroine and frequenter of "Pavis and the Big Rubble") many years ago. I read a lot of Conan stories even longer ago too, as well as a smidgeon of Lovecraft, but thought I would give this a go.



 



Another thing I like about "Ghost Archipelago" is the different creature options, with sea beasts, lost tribes and these fellows. I simply love the idea of snakemen. What more sinister mutation could a "human" have than to be crossed with a cold-blooded, non-mammalian creature with some seriously nasty inherent traits? Poison bite, anyone???

 

Finally, these were a freebie and I got three sets of them.

Yes, a FREEBIE!!! Vince approached me as I browsed and offered me the three sets free and gratis. They are one foot square terrain tiles, four per pack, so I have enough to do a 4x3 foot table. Now, the detail may be printed on them, but they are double-sided and will happily sit flat and have terrain pieces added onto them. Ideal for games such as "Burrows & Badgers" and "Ghost Archipelago" (though one or more of the various Africa games would fit, alongside numerous other options), they could well replace my two foot square terrain boards in future games of that ilk as they simply give far greater flexibility of use. They are technically for a game called "Golem Arcana", which Vince had in stock, so I may well return to pick up a copy as the artwork at least looks rather attractive...We shall see.

So, Christmas shopping partially done, shopping for myself a most welcome distraction, I shall depart and dodge the mercurial lighting to try and get some more figures completed, about which I will post as and when.

G