Battle Report: Hostile Space - Attack on New Arcadia

 

The following is a battle report for my latest game, Hostile Space: 

The New Olympians were putting all the pieces together and closing the noose on the Red Knight operation to de-stabilize New Arcadia.  The trading contract of the New Arcadia Freehold was coming up for negotiation.  Their current patrons were the New Olympians, and the Red Knights had been contracted to disrupt trade and prospecting efforts to highlight that the New Olympians could not guarantee the Freehold's security and prosperity.  Once a new contract had been met, the Red Knight contract would also come to an end.  

However, the New Olympians were not so wiling to just let the Red Knight Mercenaries disrupt things around New Arcadia.  They had dispatched their own Patrol Ship with a squadron of Combat Suits to find the source of the disruptions and put a stop to them.  The New Olympians were not going to let the Freehold slide from their sphere of influence without a fight.  

The New Olympians had managed to disrupt the Red Knight attacks and drive them into hiding.  However, the New Olympians managed to track them down and eliminate the Red Knights main base of operations in New Arcadia.  In order to fulfill their contract, the Red Knights had a small window of opportunity.  Their last chance was a desperate attack on New Arcadia itself to force a regime change.  It was a huge and overt gamble, but their was a small window of opportunity before the New Olympian Patrol Craft could return to the Freehold.  

In desperation, Red Knight agents managed to disable the long-range defense guns of the New Arcadia main docking array.  That would be the infiltration point for the Red Knights, they just had to battle their way to the landing site and make the attack stick!  

Forces:

New Olympians

3 Hecate Fighters

1 Hecate Fighter - Missile Pods

3 Hera Defense Satellites

Red Knights

4 Bulldogs

1 Bulldog- Rocket Tube

1 Shephard - Swarm Missiles

1 Shephard - Swarm Missiles, Combat Axe, Shield

3 Watchdog Landers

We are using Mission 11- Assault the Base.  The New Olympians are trying to stop the Red Knights from landing their transports at the base.  The New Olympians gain bonus VPs for killing Transports, and the Red Knights score for landing them.   

Set-up:

This time, we are playing on a 72 x 48 MU board.  That means 1 MU is 1 inch in today's battle. I have placed large "shadows" on the board that represent other freighters, cargo containers, and other craft.  They all cover a single altitude that was randomly determined.  Each has a dice next to them for Height.  If a Suit or transport enters the area of a shadow and is at the same altitude, it is considered destroyed. 

In addition, we have set-up a short board edge to be the Freehold with a landing platform.  The platform is at altitude 3 and can be landed on.  The rest of the Freehold covers all altitudes and any craft that comes in contact will be destroyed.   

The Red Knights were coming in on the opposite board edge and spoiling for a fight.  

Maneuver Phase:

The Hecate fighters use their considerable speed to blast through the oncoming suit swarm and target the Transports.  However, that gave the Red Knight Suits a clear path to the Hangar, with only the defense guns to protect them.  The quick attack leaves one Transport badly damaged!  

However, the Mastiff escort does get a very close range hit on Hecate 2, and takes it out of the fight.  A Zero G-capsule breaks free, indicating that the pilot of the Hecate managed to bail-out before his craft went out of control.  First Blood to the Red Knights!  

Battle Phase

The Red Knight Combat Suits can not outmaneuver the interceptors, so they try to focus on getting to the Hangar and dealing with the defense satellites.  The heavily damaged Red Knight Transport tries to break away to avoid destruction.  The others, continue on the attack.  

As the Mercs close in on New Arcadia, the Hecates take their toll on the Transports and blow one up, killing the marines on-board.  However, it doesn't go all the New Olympians way as a Defense satellite is smoked by a Rocket Tube. 

 

End Game

The last remaining but heavily damaged Transports set-up for their landing runs.  The Hecates easily closed in on them, and used the last of their ammo to open fire.  One of the Transports was smoked, while the second was heavily damaged, but its armor held!  

With the Hecates and Hera's all out of ammo, we decided to play the Disengagement round and see what happened!  Would the Transport make it to land?  

Ultimtaely, the Hecates were able to use their speed and maneuver to easily escape, despite a parting shot from a Mastiff suit.  The Transports and Mastiff suit going to land ended up being a bit too far, but in the end we decided that they would have been able to land unopposed before the defense cannons came back online.  

Conclusion: 

Per the rules of the scenario, the Attacker and Defender roll off on a d6, the Attacker gets a +1 for each Assault unit that landed.  We had said that a Transport and a Combat Suit would have been able to land, giving the Red Knights a +2 to the roll.

The New Olympian defenders rolled and got a 3.  Not great.  The Red Knights would need to roll a 1 to fumble the assault.  The dice were rolled and..... 5 +2 = 7.  An easy victory (even without the +2) for the Red Knights as they manage to storm the Free Hold!  

As the New Olympian Patrol Ship returns from Liberty Pointe, they are shocked when they come under fire from New Arcadia's defenses!  They were supposed to be allies!  Quick thinking and skilled navigation manages to get the New Olympian vessel far enough away to avoid serious damage.  

Communication from New Arcadia makes things clearer.  While the ship was away, chasing mercenaries, the Free Hold had a change of governance.  The treaty with New Olympia had been ripped up!  They were now negotiating with the Earth Alliance instead.  

Handed such a Fait Accompli, the Patrol Ship could do little else.  This was now a political problem more than a military problem.  The New Olympians could not simple storm the Free Hold and re-take it. If they did so, they would face serious condemnation from the Concert of the Great Powers.  

The New Olympian Patrol Ship was soon order to return to their Carrier and await re-assignment.  In the Concert of the Solar System chambers, the New Olympians were able to bring strong evidence that the piratical activities in the region had been at the behest of the Earth Alliance via the Red Knight Mercenaries.  However, the New Arcadia government insisted that it no longer wanted to be in the New Olympian orbit.  The Concert and the New Olympians hands were tied.... at least here in New Arcadia. 

That pretty much wraps up our slow burn, Hostile Space campaign.  I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse at how to play the game, and some nuances of the setting. 

Until next time! 

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On The Painting Desk: Against the Ogres - Heroquest

 

I managed to finish painting up my Core Heroquest boxed set from Hasbro/Avalon Hill.  That meant I could start playing AND purchase expansions for it.  I picked up Against the Ogres as my first expansion because that one seemed to add more special rules than some of the other expansions. I was particularly interested in the rules for ranges monsters and multi-square monsters.  The other stuff was just a bonus.  I have to say, that I was not disappointed by the new Ogres and minis in the boxed set.  The Ogre Leaders and Champions are HUGE!  

This set also came with some new furniture and some nice looking new tiles too.  Therefore, I got to work getting everything ready to paint up.  I pulled out all the new minis and furniture and gave them a nice base coat of Grey Seer prime, and then hit is with a dark wash of Grey and a drybrush of white.  As you all know by now, this priming method is great for speed paints.  As a fun bonus for this painting project, I also picked up the new Metallic Speed Paints from Armypainter.  This will add onto my existing range of Armypainter 1.0 speedpaints, regular Armypainter, and Armypainter washes that I have been using on this project.

Unlike the Core box set, I decided to start this project with the furniture first.  The Ogre expansion had 4 "stone" doors, a big throne, and a couple of cool slide open gates for the Arena section of the rules.  Pretty cool additions.  I got started on them first.... oh and the Druid wolf.  I needed that as a play piece for our ongoing D&D campaign.  

I used the Metallic on the door handle rings and the icon on the Throne.  Everything else is basic speed paints.  I am still figuring out and experimenting with what paint leads to what effect with those Metallic.    Astute viewers will also know that I also played around with some OSL effects on the torches.  Maybe it worked?  Maybe it didn't, but that is the farthest I have gotten with that type of technique.  Of course, after blocking in the main colors I went ahead and gave them a Light Tone wash and then sprayed them all with sealer for heavy usage.    

The next items on my agenda were the Druids.  You get a male and female version which is a nice touch.  They don't talk about the "lore" of Druids too much in the booklet but it seems clear to me that they are some sort of Fantasy Race as they are taller and skinnier than Dwarves but also shorter than the Elf.  However, they still have the pointed ears.  Interesting. Anyway..... 

For the Druids I focused on using "natural tones" like greens, and browns.  I wanted the red hair to really "pop" against the more organic color palette.  I purposely avoided using any metallic color on these guys.  I also wanted the painting to be somewhat similar, since they are alternate sculpts of the same "character".  

Next up, I moved onto the main reason I got this box..... the missile troops!  I started with the Skeleton archers.  I also used a Wiz-kids miniature I had sitting around to test out my new Metallic Speedpaints.  I then used a few on the Archers too.  You will also notice that I color coded the Skellies just in case you had to differentiate them, I do use these guys for RPG too    Overall, I was happy with the result. 

To help me prep for the Ogres and as a bit of a palette cleanser, I went to a True Crit Gaming Guild painting event.  There, I took a Reaper Storm Giantess model that I intended to use with my Greek Hoplites as the goddess Hera (or Aphrodite) for games using Osprey's Of Gods and Mortals game.  This model was surprisingly hard to track down for a while, as Reaper was going through there material change.  I got it some form of Bones that painted up just fine.  

I wanted her to look Greek, and I think I got it.  The skin tone and her Bronze Cuirass sort of blend together a bit more than I wanted, but I am not going back to fix it. Overall, I am happy with the result and she will fit in fine.  Now, I just need to think about what I want for other Mythic monsters that are Hera themed.  Probably some of the foes of Heracles makes sense.  

With the Ogres and Orcs left to paint from this boxed set, I think I am going to call this post complete.  Who knows how long it will take me.  The weather has been very hot here, and there is no sign it is going to get any cooler.  I don't really have A/C so it is not conducive to painting.  However, after finishing this boxed set, I all ready have two new projects in the pipeline! 

 

Adding some Persian Chariots to my Persian force.  These are from Wargames Atlantic.  The rest of the army is from Victrix so I am interested to see how they look in the same force.  Plus, I can use some of the extra troops to bulk out my Persian infantry a bit too.  

Then, I also got some new things from Victrix too.  

 A new force for Fury of the Northman.  These will be an Anglo-saxon force to go up against my Vikings and Irish.  The Dark Age archers were out-of-stock, but I will get a set o those next time I order from them.  I did want to add a new faction for that game this year, but I doubt it will get finished by the End of the Year.  

Until next time faithful readers! 

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Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

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Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict - Egyptians vs. Hittites in a prelude to Kadesh

 

Exciting times my friends.  This was a practice game in the run up to the big Battle of Kadesh game I want to host.  Therefore, the forces are not at maximum size yet as we get used to the rules.  We are having a "what-if" type of scenario where our two opponents forward forces have a meeting engagement prior to the big battle we know about at Kadesh.  

Forces

Egyptians

3 Light Chariots

- Composite Bows

- General

1 Professional Infantry

2 Auxiliary Infantry

- Composite Bows

4 Archers

Hittites

3 Heavy Chariots

- Javelins

- 1 General

1 Auxiliary Infantry

2 Levy Infantry

- Bows

2 Skirmishers

Mission: 

As the Egyptians are operating in the Levant against the Hittites, we made the Egyptians the Attackers and the Hittites the Defenders.  We then randomly determined the scenario using the method in the rules.  We were going to play a supply run.  The Hittites were moving vital supplies to Kadesh prior to the Egyptians getting there and laying siege to the city! 

The Hittites have three supply tokens they need to get off board in 8 turns and without breaking. 

Set-up:

Of course, we will be playing today on a 72MU by 48MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch.  

Using the core rulebook rules, we see a relatively open battlefield that is bisected by some hills.  The rest is fairly flat and open terrain, with one edge bordering a coast line. 

Egyptian Forces

The Egyptians from there left flank across are two archers, the Pharaoh, the Sherden Guard, some Auxiliary Infantry with bows, two light chariots, some Auxiliary infantry, and the last two archers. 

Hittite Forces

From the Hittite right to left is the Heavy Chariots, backed up by the infantry with the auxiliaries in the middle.  On the far flank on a hill is two units of skirmishers.  The Hittite commander has dispersed his supplies with the General, the spearmen infantry, and a unit of skirmishers.   

As usual, I won't be doing an exact play-by-play of the battle,  I will break it into the Maneuvering phase, Battle Phase, and End Game for brevity and simplicity.

Maneuver Phase

The two sides move-out.  The Egyptian chariots are on the opposite side of the board for the most part, as the Hittite forces lurch to their right flank.  The Egyptians are more evenly spread, but their Chariots seem to be more to their own right.  The Pharaoh is in the center.  One of the Hittites units with the supplies clambers up into a hill for extra defense.  

The two sides manage to do a bit of skirmishing early.  The Pharaoh gets a bead on the supply skirmishers on the hill and opens fire with their bows.  The cause a few troopers to fall.  In return, the escorting skirmishers charge into the Egyptian leader, he stands his ground and fights with them; eager for glory.  The fighting is a draw, reminding the Egyptian player that Light Chariots are best for shoot-n-scoot!  

Meanwhile, the Heavy Hittite chariots carrying supplies attack the Egyptian flank.  The heavy charge of the chariots easily routes the Egyptian archers they come in contact with!  The second Heavy Chariot peppers the other Egyptian Archers with ineffective missile fire. 

With the first Egyptian unit routed, the battle starts in earnest! 

Battle Phase:

The Egyptians start by firing a volley of arrows at a group of Heavy Chariots leading the Hittite advance.  They inflict minimal courage loss.  In response, the Hittites try to steal the initiative, and succeed!.  The supply carrying Chariots manage a flank charge on the archers and scatter them like seeds in the wind.  

The Egyptians try to regain the Initiative, but fail.  The Hittite Levy infantry fires at the Egyptian elites, who shrug off the attack. However, the Hittite skirmishers with the supplies manage to get behind a Levy Infantry screen.

The Royal Sherden Guards rush to the defense of the Pharaoh and easily smash their way through the Hittite Skirmishers and protect their paymaster.  They have proven their worth to the Pharaoh yet again! This allows the Pharaoh to regroup with his other light chariots, and start to move behind the Hittite line.  They pepper some Levy Infantry on a hill with archer fire, but for little effect. 

The battle has reached the half-way point, the Egyptians appear to be out of position, as the Hittites surge forward.  In an attempt to salvage a bad situation, the Egyptian Infantry on the hill use their Composite Bows on the Hittite King racing past below them, and cause minor injury on his entourage.  The Sherden guards charge the Levy infantry anchoring the Hittite rearguard, and attempt to scatter them off the hill.  They exchange courage loss, but the Levy is disordered from the Professional soldiers ferocious assault.  The Egyptian chariots desperately try to race around the flank and get behind the advancing Hittites, but it maybe too little too late.  

The Hittite King and his escorts throw Javelins back at the Egyptians on the hill, and with some luck manage to inflict minor injury on their attackers.  The Levy Infantry move up, blocking the enemy infantry from getting off the hill and after their supply bearers.  

The Hittite king swings around the hills, and charges into the Egyptian archers.  They try to Evade, but the Hittite King has too much momentum.  He crashes into them, but fails to scatter them.  The remaining Chariot and Infantry fire arrows and throw Javelins into the infantry on the hill, but fail to cause any damage.  The Hittite Levy infantry manages to throw the Sherden guard off the hill with few casualties, they manage to refrain from following up.  The supplies with the Hittite Heavy Chariot escape the board successfully.  

The Egyptian Infantry on the hill charges down to attack the Hittite Levy Infantry blocking their way.  They manage to push the Hittites back in the combat.  The Pharaoh and his chariot guard see the Hittite troops breaking away from them, can they catch them in time?  

End Phase

The Hittite Skirmishers with the supplies dash for safety.  The Egyptians manage to steal the initiative to try and chase down the enemy.  The Egyptian Light Chariots manage to catch-up to the fleeing Skirmishers, and shoot down the fleeing soldiers with ease!   However, the Hittite spearmen are made of tougher stuff, and shrug it off.  

The Egyptian Auxiliary Infantry charges at a Heavy Chariot, but they manage to deftly evade the attack.  As they race past, they pepper the impudent Egyptians with Javelins causing minimal damage.  The Disordered Hittite Levy Infantry on the hill, pulls itself together long enough to charge down into the flank of the infantry battle, but fail to sway the fight.  The Hittite King again fails to scatter the Egyptian archers.  

Going into turn 7 of 8, the Egyptians are closing in on their prey.  The Hittites spend all their King's Decree to get their last unit off the board and for a win.  However, they make it to the board edge.  The Egyptians have 1 last chance to stop them from escaping.  The Egyptians let them play out the rest of their turn, with the Hittites scattering an archer unit, and the Levy Infantry pushing the Egyptians back!  However, the Hittite infantry is on the brink of routing.  

An Egyptian Light Chariot desperately charges forward at full speed to tie-up the supply unit, but fail to get there and are disordered by the effort!  The follow-up Light Chariots rush forward and fire arrows, but fail to stop the Hittite troops.    

The Final turn, the Hittites spend all their King's Decree.  The Egyptians do too.  This forces a roll-off, which the Hittites win.  They activate their Infantry unit with the supplies and flee the board, ending the game.  

Conclusion:

A Hittite victory as they get 2 out of 3 supply tokens off the board edge.  It went down to the last die roll of the game, which is usually a sign of a well-fought battle!  

Two mistakes occurred during this game.  First, I deployed 1 Egyptian archer unit too many in deployment.  Second, we rolled up the Bad Water complication and then completely forget to use it during the game!  Woops. 

Here are some additional final thoughts.  First, heavy chariots are deadly!  They smashed through whole units in a single turn.  Granted, they were archer units, but still pretty impressive.  Second, Light Chariots are great at flitting about and shooting stuff like crazy.  They also allow for quick re-deployment and response.  They were a ton of fun to control!  Being on terrain helps a lot to defend against missiles and assaults, dug in infantry is hard to move.  The changes to infantry movement, charging distances, missile ranges, etc. all give this a very different feel than my Greek/Roman games.  There is a lot more movement and less line-up and bash!  I like it!  

Hopefully, this gives you a good feel for the game.  Next up, I am going to do a dry run of Kadesh, and then figure out when I am going to put on that community game with it!  You can pick-up these rules now on my Blood and Spectacles page on the Wargame Vault now.  

Until next time! 

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Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

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Random: 2024 Mid-Point, not to be confused with Midway

 

Dang.  Would you look at the time.  Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.

Long time readers will recall that I put together some guideline goals at the beginning of the year to help shape what I am working on.  This year was no exception.  Since July is over, it seems like now is a good time to pause and take stock of the situation.  How am I doing with those goals?  Have I fallen off the track or am I on target.... to mix my metaphors!      

Normally, I break my goals down into the following areas:

• Purchases
• Painting/Modelling
• Gaming
• Writing
• Miscellaneous Hobby Stuff

So, let's get this train in the air!  

Purchases

None of this section would be possible without the generous financial support of readers like you! 

Every time you purchase one of my books from Osprey, my Wargame Vault page, my Drive-Thru RPG page, and follow my Patreon you are helping to fund the continued existence of Blood and Spectacles Publishing.  The money I earn from these areas I put back into content on the blog, content on Social Media, and new products for you!  Any money I earn goes back into the business of wargaming and role-playing.  Thank you!  I could not do it without you!

With that said, it is always hard to decide how I intend to use these investments into purchases for the year.  Going into this year, I had a few goals lined out for what I should purchase to help generate content.  Looking at my goals, I have been following my intentions pretty closely.  

• I have stayed caught up with the Osprey Wargaming Series and posted reviews.  Those titles were With Hot Lead and Cold Steel and When Nightmares Come.  There was some delay due to local availability, but I think that is sorted for now.  
• I have purchased at least one new set of rules that were not Osprey and posted a review.  In this case, I picked up Modiphius' 5 Parsecs from Home which is a Sci-fi, model-vs-model, solo-game 
• I picked up a couple of Kill Teams.  They were the Hand of the Archon, Sisters of Battle, and a Blooded Chaos Guard team.  Two of them were from my local FLGS.  
• I also picked up a force of Anglo-Saxons from Victrix for use with my Fury of the Northman rules.  I wanted to expand my forces for some of my own games for Batreps and demo games. When Victrix sent me a 20% code, I couldn't resist. Expect to see my journey with these little soldiers on the blog. 
• I also picked up the Kill Team starter set. 
• I also picked up a single Heroquest expansion and provided a review for it; Against the Ogre Hordes  

Not a bad start, the only thing I still have to deliver on is to pick-up a new set of RPG rules.  I have been really torn on what to purchase.  I have waivered between Vampire: The Masquerade, Traveller, Tomorrow City, Cyberpunk: Red, Candela Obscura and Masks: The New Generation.  I am also looking at what my RPG group might want to play, and that is not helping me decide since they seem pretty set on D20 5E-alikes and I DO NOT WANT THAT! I want to be exposed to something new.  

My wife did express some interest in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic RPG but I am all ready familiar with the Essence 20 system, so I have been reluctant to act.  She claimed she would be willing to GM the game too, which would be a big change for her!  Familiarity with the system has also made me reluctant to get some other RPGs if they are just derivatives of games I have all ready played or own.   

I am open to some RPG suggestions in the comments. 

Painting/Modelling

Wow, I have been pretty productive on this front for the year.  I finished off a lot of projects in that time period!  I have ~175 minis painted so far!  Most of that was in the late winter and early spring.  Summer slowed me down a bit due to other activities and hot weather that wasn't great for painting.  My house does not have A/C, because back when my homestead was built that was not needed in this region.   

• Painted my 6mm Hittite forces and the city of Kadesh for In Strife and Conflict
• The Kill Team starter set and three other Kill Teams all painted up!     
• Finished the Heroquest core set which includes models, furniture, and doorways
• Painted some assorted miniatures as palette cleansers for various side projects

The Hittites March to War! 

Fully painted Heroquest Core Set in Action!

  

Kill Team Starter Set on the tabletop! 

Kind of impressed with my output so far! 

Gaming

I think I am about on track with two games a month.  I started really strong in late Winter, but have fallen off the wagon a bit.  Not sure why, but gaming has not been high on my priority list lately.  Here are some highlights: 

• Wrapped up the Siege Perilous campaign with the True Crit Gaming Guild.  I played for both Imperial and Chaos depending on who else was there.  A resounding victory for Chaos in the campaign.  
• Managed to play a test game for In Strife and Conflict
• Played a few games of Hostile Space with my kitbashed/converted Mecha toys
• Unexpectedly got to play a few games of Shadows of Brimstone
• A weekly RPG session that is mostly D&D 5E so far this year. 

In Strife and Conflict 

Fury of the Northman

Engagement in Hostile Space

Shadows of Brimstone

D&D 5E from my weekly RPG session

Rules Writing

When 2024 started, I didn't think I would have much to finish for the year.  Mostly, I was focusing on getting In Strife and Conflict over the finish line and into circulation.  I managed that, but I also had a few other wins for the first half of the year!  

• Hostile Space is on the Wargame Vault.  This is a game of anime inspired, space mecha combat.  I am also working on an RPG version of this game for release sometime later. 
• Into the Snake Pit is on Drive Thru RPG.  This is a free module for the G.I. Joe: Role-playing Game that I wrote.  I want to play the game, so I wrote a module for my group and made it available to everyone. 
• No Dice is on Drive Thru RPG.  This is a diceless role-playing game that uses keyword chains to overcome challenges.  Perfect for Forum or text-based games but also works just fine in-person too.  
• Insanity at Snowden Manor is a module for Flashlight: Tales of Terror and both are on Drive Thru RPG.  This is a module I have played a couple of times and with good results overall. 
• In Strife and Conflict  is freshly available on our Wargame Vault page.  This was a chariot wars game based on Assyrian history.  It covers a broad period of time from early Bronze Age to early Iron Age.  This one was 5+ years in the making. 

Miscellaneous Stuff

This stuff has also been moving forward.  However, there is one thing that has kind of stalled out.  I wanted to run a Battle of Kadesh demo game at my FLGS and local libraries, but I have not really followed through on this one.  My schedule has been crazy, and I am not 100% sure how to go about running a "Learning Experience" style game where the goal is educational as well as fun!  

I have also finally been able to get my Website up-to-date with all my release activity.  I have improved my Social Media game with different and better content.  I have also been able to add more "Value-add" content on my Patreon.  All good steps. 

Other News

So, that was a lot of stuff done.  However, it has not been all roses and good news here at the Farrington Homestead.  This has been a tough spring.  Some of you may know, that I have a small Friends Not Food Homestead that I operate.  This has a wide variety of animals from goats, pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, and more.  This spring was a bit of a tough one for us here at the Homestead.  

Our long time companion and wargaming friend Tia the black cat left us.  She was about 14 years old, and is sorely missed.  She was my lap cat and long time friend.  We had moved around together a few times and she had often helped me write, play and paint a lot of the projects you see on the blog.  She is survived by her sister Oreo who is also a sometimes contributor on the blog and social media page.  

In addition, we lost three of our six chickens.  Two had suffered a tough winter and never fully recovered.  The third sickened and died over the hot, hot summer.  They were all about 4 years old as we got them all at the same time..  We lost Kruschev, a Red Star Pullet, Vin Diesel a Buff Orpington, and Red, a Rhode Island Red.  They were all friendly and talkative chickens that were very curious.  I miss them very much as they were my yardwork companions.

Kruschev

Red

Vin Diesel

Lastly, we lost two little buddies in the form of Salt and Pepper.  These were a couple of rescue rats that were sisters and both about 4 years old.  They were playful little ladies who loved to go inverted in their cages.  They were not much for leaving their home, not even for cuddles; but were always eager to see you stop by and visit.  

Salt and Pepper respectively

 Of course, some good stuff happened too!  My wife graduated college with an AA degree, and is continuing with her Bachelors.  My kid started college as well.  Our family managed to continue our charitable work of giving free clothes away and helping folks with Mental Health in our community too.  I am also a member of the Beneficent and Protective Order of the Elks.  We continue to meet lots of people in the gaming hobby and the local community, and look to make the rest of this year just as productive about trying to make our rural community a better place for all.  

Until next time!

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