Games Room Redux

I had hoped to get more done on the Empire of the Dead stuff over the weekend, but circumstance, and experience, led me in a differing direction, and I decided it was high time to 'adjust' the "Gentleman's gaming parlour"...

I was in a very fortunate position, several years ago, in being able to plan and have built, our home...  now this was a rather novel experience for a person from the the UK, where the norm is more to buy, and move house to house... Back in the UK the idea of having a house built never crossed my mind... after all, where would you put it? Anyone from the big smoke, or urban sprawl, will know what I am talking about...

Here, in 'God-zone'...AKA, 'New Zealand',  I was lucky enough to afford and find a plot of land to do just that...

So top of my list of must haves for my home was a dedicated games-room... wifey-poos attended to the rest ... ;-)
Bedrooms check, kitchen check, lounge check etc etc...

Having a realized man-cave/shed/zone/"get outta here its mine"- kinda thingy, with oodles of space, sent my space restricted Pom-ey mind into a frenzy of apoplexy... and with visions of grandeur I designed and put forth the biggest table I could muster, this being 12' x 6', or approx 360cm x 180cm, for you jolly ol' colonial types reading this ;-)

The idea being to be able to host those 'big battles' you see in magazines or on the web, or whatever...sadly such games have been as rare as  the proverbial 'blue moon' around here, and for regular sized games, the table has always been over sized, making 'regular gaming' a bit of pain, it being difficult to reach towards the centre, or end of the board, unless you are over 6' tall, which sadly I am not...

The games room was also a place I had hoped to foster gaming for my young son and I, but he has never had a shit show of reaching the table, and I guess always having had to have had Dad reach for and move the models for him, has dulled the experience... so hence additional boards were built and stuck on the dining room table, to allow him to participate... which the whole point of having the games-room built, was meant to avoid... (to keep 'SWMBO' happy)... he's 10 now, so I feel at that pivotal step, in really grasping gaming before being 'hard-wired' does for him forever...

So push come to shove, with most games being played in 'Chez-Bowman' requiring a 6' x 4' or 4' x  4' area... it was time to bite the bullet, and cut the over-sized grandiose table into three smaller 6' x 4' tables... This will allow 'No.1 son' to participate in the 'man zone', and to even have several differing games on the go at once, none of which need tidying away until completion! So perchance, FoW, LotR and EotD, could all be going on at once! Perhaps even a return to LotHS...

The mind boggles...

So here's a quick snap of games room redux...

... Three 6' x 4' tables, with enough space to move around them... heck I could perhaps host a mini-tournament too, should the desire so move me...

Biggest job today though was actually sorting the under-table storage as this all had to be reconfigured to fit under three smaller tables, not one big one...but we managed (No.1 son helping with the lifting and carrying, Gods bless his cotton socks), with Ipod blasting my ear canals with groovy sounds, and power tools humming!

I swear, a man needs nothing more than good music, power tools and wood glue to be happy! Though a bit of spray paint in a confined space works wonders too ;-)

I now relish the chance for some decent father and son gaming in the man-zone!

So that was Saturday... Sunday being the family trip to Wello for the Santa parade, fingers crossed, we get good weather...

Oh, just to prove why I need to move 'subsidiary' tables from the dining room, given any length of time unattended, they are immediately occupied by one of four, interloping unauthorized personnel... for some reason cats just love to be up high and hidden from view... it's a comfort thing I guess...

"Monica", captures Jerusalem, ... or was it Minas Ithil... I cant recall! ;-)

Happy gaming folks, and a very merry Seasons Greetings to you all... and for all those in Curts Analogue Hobbies Challenge - get prepping!  ;-)


Cheers
Scott

Display cabinets

I finally got my display cabinets fully installed and wired up thanks to a local 'sparky' friend. Also secured to wall, so hope will with stand a wobble or two, that we can get in this part of the world.

They were ordered from Barrie at NZIW LTD in Auckland, and shipped flat packed to my home. It was quite an ordeal assembling them; instructions, yes I am a man but I read them!, were somewhat tricky, to figure out, but I got there in the end, and once I had figured out the first one, the second two were completed fairly quickly, with a little assistance; you nearly always need an extra pair of hands just to hold something, while you fit another part to it... I must admit I was constantly awaiting the sound of breaking glass, but thankfully it never came.

The last part was getting power to them and then fastening them to wall for security.

They came with Halogen lights, but I may look to switch to LED lights as these will be cheaper to run. However I will only have them switched on when I am using the room, which is not as frequently as I would like, so no worries really there.

Well they are up and full of the figures I have been busy with over the last 6 years or so. I can fit more in as needed, and get extra glass shelving too when the time comes that it is needed.

In the meantime, my unpainted hordes stare jealously at their potential new home!

So many periods, so little time...

A bit of a divergence from my normal style of blog posting.

After a recent and fortunate chance to get to play a fun and simple cowboys skirmish game on Joe Harrison's wonderful "Leadwood", and then seeing online a very impressive Napoleonic Naval and land game, I have become inspired once again to set to and start making terrain again...

A number of thoughts have come together; the quality and scale of Joe's town construction, the expanse of sea, as seen in the naval game with the glorious ships, the fact that the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is due out shortly and my past enjoyment playing Legends of the High Seas, the Corsairs ship I made for Lord of the Rings, and a desire to recreate Osgiliath, and other Gondorian locations near water; Harlond, Cair Andros, and Pelargir...


What I came to realize is, if I cover my games table which is 12' x 6', with a new flat surface and paint this as the sea, I can then overlay various land areas to represent coastlines, island, docks and the like. This will allow for some wonderful pirate skirmish war-gaming, and assaults against the various coastal areas of Gondor.

So where there's a will, there's a way, and I have set to once again with scalpel, balsa, card and foamcard and have churned out several constructions over the last week or so.

I have converted a building I originally made as a church for ECW gaming, into a Gondorian style dock warehouse.

I have followed the template guide and made the basic small sloop from the back of the Legends of the High Seas rulebook. The hull and deck was relatively straight forward to do, and I had a browse through internet images of sloops to get an idea of how the masts and sails should look.

Obviously still a work in progress. I need to properly attach the sails with string, and finish rigging and add the wheel, and paint it up. Its fairly small, the hull is only 6" long, but it is perfect for a small starting-out pirate crew for the game.

I have made a start on 3 pirate style buildings, to go towards my Port Royal / Tortuga.

Much work still to do here. Add windows and doors, clad with balsa beams, add roof tiles, and paint.

And I have just finished cutting out the materials from the plans from the Gary Chalk pirate brigantine.

Oh and of course I have made the sea base for the games table.

It just needs a coat of varnish to finish off.

Here's my corsairs themed ship looking the part on its new sea. I must get the LOTR corsair crew fast tracked to the painting table!

I have also put together the three flat packed glass display cases I ordered from Barrie at NZIW Ltd.

This is them just assembled, they still need to have all the glass and mirrors cleaned and polished up, and lightbulbs added. I still have to figure out the best way to wire these up for the lighting, and secure them to the wall, to make them at least slightly 'quake proof.

Lets just say I think I am going to be rather busy over the coming year putting all this together.

Oh and I still have to finish the ACW confederates sitting on my painting table!

So many periods, so little time!

Design of a Gamesroom

When the chance came for my wife and I to design and plan our own home, one of the things I had always wanted, was a purpose built games room.

Most of us have to make do with setting up battles on the dining room table, and then having to clear everything away after each game. Others are lucky enough to have a spare bedroom which can be made to fit the bill, although unless its an especially spacious bedroom, will still be a little cramped to fit all the gaming paraphernalia into it; table and space to move around it, painting area, storage for models and terrain, seating, bookshelves for reference literature and rules, the list goes on and on. Some can utilize the garage or shed, but these may be cold and damp in winter.

Through my gaming "career" I have worked my way through these different levels, monopolizing the dining room table while at home with my parents, to finding a small spare bedroom in my first home.

Our house was designed (and subsequently built) with our input, by Homecreators here on the Kapiti Coast. Dave Smithson was great to deal with in the initial planning stages and made the whole process very easy. As the build progressed, our main contact switched to Daves brother Ben, who helped work through all the "nitty gritty" of the build itself, and loose ends that needed tidying up afterwards. If you are on the Kapiti Coast, and want a house built, I cannot recommend them enough.

The gamesroom itself, started out as an addition to the garage. It then went through a couple of design changes including being made into an "attic-truss" type configuration, where the games room would have been above the garage. However, this would actually have cost more to do, and given me less space. So the plan reverted to being on the ground floor, located to the side of the garage. This worked out simply because we had the ground space to do it on the section of land we had.

The gamesroom is accessible through the ranch-sliders at the front of the house to left side of garage doors. This means the gents can call to the house and enter the gamesroom without disturbing the rest of the house. An internal door connects to the garage, through which you come to the utility/laundry, and then on into the main house hallway for access to the the toilet.

We thought about having a separate toilet for the gamesroom, but this reduced space in gamesroom and increased costs, so the idea was scrapped.

The gamesroom measures 4.5m in width and 6m in length. It comfortably contains my 12' x 6' games table, and all its space underneath for storage, and also space to move around all sides of the table. There is space for book shelves and a work area and importantly a beer fridge ;-).


Our home, the sliding doors to left of garage door allow access to the gamesroom from the front driveway.


A shot of the gamesroom from open front sliding doors, showing table, with space underneath for storage, and shelves, work area and beer fridge on left wall.


Another shot of same. Since this shot was taken I have "temporarily" added two wallpaper pasting tables to allow a bit more space for terrain making (always a messy process that requires a fair bit of space to spread yourself out!) I hope eventually to include a sofa for those tired out from gaming and in need of liquid refreshment, and comfy spot upon which to recline and mull over the tactical implications before them! ;-)


My inaugural games night; a Napoleonic battle using General de Brigade rules. Pictures show myself to left, then Roly Hermans (our clubs esteemed "General"), and Brian Smaller, Steve Sands and Greg Simmonds, some of the founding members of the Kapiti Fusiliers. If I recall correctly, the game was a win for the French over Russians holding a village who were awaiting reinforcements.

One final point about the chosen position of the gamesroom means that, God forbid!, should I every have to sell up and move on, this extra room to the property has many uses that would appeal to many prospective purchases; a rumpus room, extra workshop, home office, or extra garage...

...but I ain't movin'!!!!! ;-)