A News Round-Up

I've been a little under the weather for the last couple of days, which is why I haven't blogged as much as I'd intended.  So today's post is by the way of a catch-all round-up.

Bloggers for Charity

The end of the BfC auction means the end of active fundraising for BfC 2014.  I was able to post an announcement that the total raised for Help for Heroes was £718 - a very nice sum indeed!

It looks unlikely that there will be a BfC 2015.

A Mile-Stone

Ste over at Monty's Caravan this week hit the 100K visitors mark.  He promises prizes, so perhaps now is a good time to visit this excellent blog!

Wargame Bloggers' Quarterly

As surely everyone whose interested in this field now knows, a new e-zine, the WBQ was launched last weekend.  It's of very high quality and has already had over 1,000 downloads.

I'm sure anyone who follows hobby blogs and forums realises that the growth of self-publishing on the internet will be the death-knell of hobby magazines unless they change their act drastically.  Because of the visual aspect and potential for instant feedback this seems to particularly likely in the wargaming world.  It would be an interest subject for someone with more knowledge than me to blog about.

Anyway, I wish all involved much success and look forward to future issues.

The Dawlish Chronicles

A bit French, bu you get the idea...

A blog I've recently started to follow might be of interest to readers.  The Dawlish Cronicles is a blog by Antoine Vanner, author of the series of books of the same name (two so far) that chart the career of Nicholas Dawlish during the transition of navies from Age of Sail to that of the Ironclads.

We already have the following teaser about how the series will end:

Admiral Sir Nicholas Dawlish is probably best remembered today for leaving retirement in 1914, at the request of his friend and sometime rival Lord Fisher, to assume responsibility for Unconventional Naval Operations. 

His imaginative filling of that role, and his death at the age of seventy two on the Zeebrugge Mole, where he fell in a hail of machine-gun fire on St.George's Day 1918, (making him the oldest serving officer to fall in action in either World War), ended an illustrious career in a manner which he would have found wholly appropriate...

The blog isn't about the books, but is the history behind this period of transition.  It's great stuff and well-researched.

The PBB BBIB Game

Clint's Play-by-Blog game of Blood, Bilges and Iron Balls continues.  He published the results of Turn 3 today and, though we're still a fair bit from any action, things are beginning to mix up...

I'll update my PBB page once I've worked out the ramifications and transcribed the relevant section from Capt Fearless' memoirs.

Other Games

Given the success of the BBIB game, I've signed up for another play-by-blog one.  This will be the famously devious board-game Diplomacy being run by The Man Padre.

It may be the worse decision I've made in a long time!

I normally avoid playing on-line games (because it then becomes difficult to pull myself away from the computer!), but suffering as many are from Piratitis, I found it difficult to resist Pirates Glory, a trading and plunder game.  I'm actually enjoying it so far.

A Few Short News Items...

BfC Auction

I think everyone whose been involved with the admin of BfC has, at best, found it a draining experience.  Well, I think it's been worthwhile.  You will remember that the auction of figures was originally to be held in June, but had to be re-booted after only one bid was made.  There was much more support for the re-boot, and I'm am pleased to say that when the book was closed last night the successful bids totaled £530.00.  This is in addition to the other monies raised during the year.  A very pleasing result, and a tribute to the generosity of the wargaming community.

Now to collect the money and deliver the figures...

Disaster at the Great Hall

Solidarity is being expressed over the blogosphere to Andrew 'Loki' Saunders, who has had a workshop disaster (though fortunately not one which involved harm to anyone).

Readers of his blog will know that he recently refitted his man cave (in the process doing a great service to the hobby by sharing his paint charts and drawing up Vallejo triad charts).  It seems the new storage system wasn't up to the task of holding a lifetime's work and collapsed.  It remains to be seen how much damage has been done, but those who know the level of Loki's work will appreciate how heart-breaking it must be to lose it.

Hopefully, once the dust has settled, it will turn out that more can be salvage than the initial assessment suggests.

Loki is one of the Good Guys.

A Small Plug

As some of you know I try to supplement my pittance by selling second-hand and remaindered books (it's one of those cases of trying to make money out of one's hobby - in my case buying interesting books).  I don't normally plug Diplomatist Books here, but Facebook seems to be doing its usual algorithm thing and not sharing updates I post to our FB page.

The latest is the announcement that from today to 4 August, all WWI titles will be 30% off the marked price.

This is my own little contribution to the commemoration of the start of the war.  I'm strongly of the opinion that to commemorate this war we need to know the facts about it (and that people should read more books!)

Auctions and Giveaways

First, an important announcement has been made at Bloggers for Charity -

Despite the effort put in by all our volunteers so far, the final push of the BfC 2014 Campaign - the auction - has made little impact.  After some discussion - and with the generous support of current bidders - it has therefore been decided that in order that the original intent of BfC (to raise money through our joint effort for some pretty damn fine charities) be met we should re-boot the auction, which is hereby extended to 22:00 British Summer Time on 31 July 2014.

There are still some great lots to be picked up!

As many of you know, BC is hoping to raise money for some fine charities.  Despite the excellent figures and artwork on offer, quite a few lots have had no bids placed.  Even if you don't want to or can't bid, I ask that you do what you can to publicise this auction.

Giveaways

There are a couple of giveaways  to announce -

Gary over at Happy Valley is giving away a prize to the follow who can answer his cryptic questions.

And today is the last chance to enter Ubique's draw to have a mounted knight painted in your personal livery.

Best of luck everyone!

Bloggers for Charity Auction Reminder

Just a reminder to everyone that there is only until the end of the month to bid on the excellent Bloggers for Charity figures.

Details of how to bid can be seen here and the figures themselves here.

Go on, there's some excellent lots and it's all for a good cause!

More Competitions and BfC News

Flush from celebrating my prize from Loki, I'm pleased to point to a couple more competitions (and yes, I'm having a punt!).  There will be winners.

• Matt over at Ubique is going to provide a model of a 13th century style mounted medieval knight miniature to the winner.  In an interesting twist he's going to paint it in the livery and with the heraldry of their choice.  Details here.

• MS Foy is celebrating it's 'almost summer' with his own give-away at Prometheus in Aspic.  This one is fiendishly difficult though!  Go have a look.

I also need to correct an oversight.  Last week I forgot to mention that Bloggers for Charity is reaching the climax of this year's fundraising.  The figures, donated by AW Miniatures and painted by well-wishers around the globe (some of these miniatures are well-travelled!) are now up for auction.  Details of how to bid are here and of the miniatures (and related artwork) here.

Are You a Proper Wargamer?

Can't be bothered with all the questions (good God though, even Gary's had a go!).  The answer is

Apparently not.

You got a problem with how I'm doing things pal?

Meanwhile, the table layout is out for Diceni.  The organisers are very apologetic, but the free table they've given to Bloggers for Charity isn't in the main area, but 'the Cosplay Zone'

Not a problem for us...

...we'll be stuck in a side-room with these weirdos.

New Look at BfC

What could it be?

Go and look

I'm Gobsmacked!

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

A huge thank you to my mystery benefactor!

And a thank you too to Gary Amos for organising, and donating the prizes for, such a splendid auction.

As Gary says, there's a fine bunch out there!

To me, this lot look like dastardly Belgians - just the sort to go dinosaur poaching...

Chances to Get Nice Stuff (And It's All For Charity)

Some rather good things are happening.

One of Gary's

figures

Bloggers for Charity

As I mentioned the other day +Gary Amos has kindly donated some very nicely painted figures to BfC and is organising a charity auction.  The details are here.  The auction is running from today until Thursday 10 Oct.

Wargames and Walking Charity Raffle

Over at Wargames and Walking the annual raffle in aid of the Royal British Legion is about to begin.  There are no details on how to enter yet, but the interim list of sponsors is impressive.  One to support.

Movember

I'm awaiting news on whether my nephew and his mates at doing anything for Movember, as they did last year, but he is tweeting that's he shaved last night...  I'll update you.

More Blogging About Blogging

I promise I shall have some original content soon...

As I mentioned the other day, there is going to be a prize-draw at O'Leary Miniatures.  Anne has put together some really fantastic and generous prizes, so go across and look.  Do read the rules, because it's not just the usual 'follow, comment and promote' deal.  One difference is that the giveaway is being sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt: you can find Mr Hatt's Amazon Writers Page http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC - he's also got a blog.

In other blogging news Chris over at Wargamer's Odds and Ends has hit some milestones: he's recently made his 300th post, he's passed the 50,000 hit's point and he's collected over 100 followers.  Being a man of similar tendencies to myself, he has done so by having a long post about his visitor stats - in his case he's managed to make them interesting (and all without pictures!).  My own stats have gone a little odd lately.

Chris is a designer of wargaming scenarios. His latest is In the Name of Roma - not my field, but I read some decent reviews, and it certainly looks the business.  It's not about Gypsies, but the Italian Army on the Russian Front in WWII.  If you want to sample his work, he's generously decided to offer an American Civil War scenario up as shareware.  You can find details of both these and others on his webpage.

As I said the other day, things are happening at Bloggers for Charity.  Apparently, it won't be too long before the figures for the 2014 game are despatched to those who've volunteered as painters and thoughts are being turned to 2015 (and beyond?) - we'll shortly have an announcement about whose taken on the task of co-ordinating 2015.

I urge everyone to get involved.  Even if, like me, you have poor painting skills and don't have the contacts to organise a presence at a show, there might be something you can do.  Even mentioning it in your blog or down at the club helps keep the momentum going.

But, in a typically forthright way, Gary Amos has reminded us that it's all about raising money.  In a similarly typical way, he's generously provided the means to do so by offering five painted figures for auction.  The auction (sealed bids) starts next week, so keep an eye on the BfC blog.

Which reminds me that I've still got a copy of the book I was selling in aid of BfC - yes, one copy only!  Those who have bought it say it's a good read.  It only costs £5.00 (inc postage) and 100% of that goes to BfC.

A Multi-Topic Post

Followers

Welcome to new follower Anne.  She will be known to many of you as the very talented painter behind O'Leary Miniatures.  Anne is reciprocally following - I'm ashamed to say that I've only just signed up to her blog (the fact she's about to have a giveaway might have something to do with it).

OLM is having technical difficulties at the moment and has lost some traffic because of it.  Do go over, the blog's still live!

Kickstarter

The other day I highlighted a nice Kickstarter by Oathsworn Miniatures.  Half way through the campaign, they're over 200% funded, so all is going well.  In my post I said that the attraction was the dwarf figures, and the others didn't appeal.  Now that the hidden figures are revealed, I'll moderate that slightly, but I'm still not inclined to sign up to the Hafling or Hired Sword options.

It seems I'm not alone in that, as they've just launched a new pledge level: the Cherry Picker.  For £50.00 you can boost your Dwarf King pledge by cherry picking the best of the rest.

Google+

In other news, I've been experimenting with using the Google+ social network.  I'm so used to Facebook that I wonder if I'm missing some of the Google features.  If anyone knows of a good site showing how to get the best out of Google+, I'll be glad to know.

Bloggers for Charity

The guys at BfC have been thinking about the future.  Go over and read about it.

A Welcome, A Milestone and a Plug

First the welcome.  Grigork of the nicely named The Megalomaniac (Mwhaha) has joined as a follower:  I hope you find stuff of interest here.

The milestone is that we have hit the 20,000 mark.  Given that the 10,000th hit was only four months ago, I think that's good going.  I won't bore you with stats as I did then, because I have other plans for stats.  Instead here's a gratuitously pulpy Verne reference...

And the plug?  Back when Bloggers for Charity was launched I racked my brains for a way in which I could contribute.  Regular readers will know that I'm no good at painting, but that I know how to source cheap books.

I therefore acquired half a dozen as-new paperback copies of The Battle for Quebec, 1759 by Matthew C Ward - the period which is being gamed.  These are for sale on my website for £5.00, inc UK postage - the whole £5.00 will go to Bloggers for Charity.  I must say that I thought these would be snapped up within days, but there are still four left.  Head over to the website for details and to order one.

Some Housekeeping and Bloggers for Charity

It seems that over the last couple of weeks I've attracted some public followers (anyone else thinks this is all a little cultish?).  I've been remiss in not welcoming you to the party, so here goes....  Welcome!

Before we play a little game of 'Pimp Your Blog!', I feel I should mention the old hands.  Special mention should go to the First Called, Mike Beedenbender; next came Michael Awdrey and JP  - those of you who read the 'comments' sections of posts will know that Michael and Jon make welcome and interesting contributions there.

The newer recruits are TasminP, Sean, Andrew Saunders and Christopher.  I hope you find things of interest here, despite the lack of focus on figures and wargaming.

I and know from the stats that there are others who follow, but prefer to hide their lights under bushels. I've used this picture before, but I like it and it says what I feel.

So, the blogs...

• Mike Beedenbender - Sorry Mike, do you have a blog?  I can't see it.
• Michael Awdrey - 28mm Victorian Warfare
• JP - Herefordshire 1938 and A Very British Civil War Miniatures Guide
• TasminP - Wargaming Girl
• Sean - again my fu has failed me.  You came via the BMF didn't you?
• Andrew Saunders - Loki's Great Hall
• Christopher - Dispatches from the Rim

Andrew is also one of the Minds behind Bloggers For Charity.  

This is a collaborative project, bringing together wargamers and painters to raise money for Help for Heroes and Men Matter (a testicular cancer charity).  They aim to do this by running a large skirmish game and re-fighting the Battle of La Belle-Famille at Triples 2014.

The battle took place on 24 Jul 1759, along the Niagara River portage trail during the French and Indian War.  A French relief force for the besieged garrison at Fort Niagara fell into Eyre Massey's British and Iroquois ambush.  Originally a British victory, what will happen in May 2014?

For more details about the project, how to contribute and how to donate, go along to the Bloggers for Charity website.