Napoleonic Marines

 A few more things rolling off the workbench - Marines in two flavours!

Royal Marines

British Royal Marines. These are actually really, REALLY old, long out-of-production Rafm Jack Tar figures. Some I've had since the late 80s - and have stripped to repaint - and others I aquired with some box of miniature from... somewhere...? 

I dug them out to paint up for use in The Silver Bayonet as a shore party from some Royal Navy ship. Perhaps it's a ship dedicated to seeking out maritime supernatural creatures. 

Once I'd located them, I realized I had a dozen of them - which I definitely do not need for The Silver Bayonet... but a dozen DOES make a unit for Rebels and Patriots! (and possibly other bigger battle games?) so I thought I'd do them all at once. 

I do have a few Royal Navy officers to lead the unit for The Silver Bayonet and a handful of sailors to flesh out the landing party, they're almost done and I'll be posting pics of those in the next few days. 

French Marines? 

I'm not sure the French navy really had marines - in the same sense that the British did...? I know in earlier times (during the Seven Years War) there was the Compagnies Franches de la Marine or Troupes de la Marine, but I'm pretty sure they were more colonial troops for garrisoning colonial possessions, which, I think, were the purview of the French Navy, rather than infantry soldiers that fought aboard ships and formed landing parties...? I'm also not sure if they even still existed in the times of Napoleon. 

I am pretty sure these minis came in a pack that labelled them as "French Marines", though. I did, at some point, find some reference and a pictures of some napoleonic Guard troops that served at sea and looked a little like these guys...? But I don't really know if that was really a thing or how prevelant they were aboard French vessels of the time. I'm calling them French Marines for games of The Silver Bayonet. Like the Royal Marines above, they will be part of a Special Unit representing a shore party from a French Vessel and will also be joined by some French Naval officers (commanding the Special Unit) and some French Sailors. 

If anyone reading this actually KNOWS anything about French Marines or any other sort of infantry that served aboard French Naval vessels, I'd be happy to know about them! 

Finnegan and I played a game of Kill Team on Monday evening. I should have a report of that up, soon-ish. 

December Games - Part the Second

 And thus began our Holidaze.... ...

The kids finished up skewl on Friday. And Amanda took MOST of this week off... She went in Tuesday, because she had to go to campus to teach a yoga class anyway... But took the rest as vacation or used up a small amount of the excessive accrued overtime... and a personal day... Next week, between Xmas and New Years, the university is closed and EVERYONE has the week off - except for a few essential staff that need to go in to take care of critters used at the Vet college, etc... 

Lots of time for GAMING! 

Friday, 17 December 2021

Kicking things off, Keiran, Amanda and i sat down to play a game of Carcassonne - we added in Traders & Builders and Inns & Cathedrals. Amanda cleaned up with the trade goods - scoring 30 points for having the most of the wine, grain AND cloth! But then I got 64 points just from farming - which kind of won me the game! 

Afterwards Amanda and I watched The Expanse with Finnegan and then just the two of us watched Wheel of Time together. 

Saturday, 18 December 2021

our Friend Kurtis came by for an evening of gaming. We finally tried playing the Century Golem Edition with ALL THREE games combined... It was a little much... It was interesting, I guess, to see the way they incorporated the mechanics of three different games into one. But there were a LOT of moving parts. 

Since it was so much work to set it all up and figure it out... We played it again. 

I like each of the games on their own. Mixing two together was interesting. All three was a bit much. 

Afterwards we played a couple of games of Kingdom Builder. EAch game used two of the new(-ish, to us) Marshlands edition boards and cards. 

In the first we played with the Hermits, Captains, and Geologists Kingdom Builder cards and the Tower, Fountain, Canoe, and Barn boards. This was the first time I saw the Canoe being useful. It seems like it could be a VERY powerful Extra Action... but only really if you can get BOTH. 

The Game was CrAzY close - Kurtis and I tied at 42 and Amanda has 41!

I the second game we played with Scout, Miner, and Messenger Kingdom Builder Cards and the Temple, Harbour, Farm, and Refuge boards. Only one of the extra actions allowed putting down additional settlements (the farm), the others only allowed up to pick up and replace settlements. I grabbed two farns quite early on so for most of the game i was placing five settlements every round to the three that Kurtis and Amanda were placing... and I just cleaned up!? 

That long orange line across the board, alone, gained me 44 points from Messengers... thats more than any of us scored in TOTAL in the previous game!? 

Monday, 20 December 2021

Monday evening we played a quick game of The Hanging Garden. Keiran had suggested it, so I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. We haven't played it since June of last year. 

Keiran and Amanda started clearing away their garden while I was laying out my tiles!? So I didn't get all three extended gardens. 

Anayway, here's what my garden looked like at the end of it - along with all the tiles I'd collected... 

Amanda won. By lots. 

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

Tuesday Amanda went into work for one last day this year - and stayed very late!? When she finally did get home, we all played Codenames: Pictures. We ended up playing six games - every one had a chance to team up with every other member of the family and within each pairing, each took turns being the Spymaster and the Field Operative. 

In Game One, Amanda and I were the Spymasters. I was paired with Finnegan and Amanda with Keiran. Amanda and Keiran won when Finnegan accidentally selected THE ASSASSIN!  

Game Two - Keiran and i were partnered up and Amanda Played with Finnnegan. Keiran and Fnnegan were the spymasters. Amanda and Finnegan won this round. 

Game Three - Keiran and Finnegan remained Spymasters, but we switched partners again. Amanda and Keiran won. 

Game Four - Back to Amanda and me being Spymasters. Kerian and I won - but only because Finnegan, again, accidentally picked THE ASSASSIN! 

For the last two games Amanda and I were partner and the kids were partners. Finnegan and I were Spymasters first. The kids won. 

Then Amanda and Keiran took a turn at being Spymasters. Again, Finnegan and Keiran won, despite Amanda and me haveing a pretty commanding lead to start... 

Good fun. Wish we played this more. It is very quick! 

Afterwards, because we are heathens and there was zero chance we'd be doing our traditional family get together on the 24th... we just opened up presents on the Solstice. 

Wednesday, 22 December 2021

Got the whole family together again to play O Zoo Le Mio

We haven't played this in YEARS, but played it a fair bit about 6-7 years ago. It's a fun little game where you play a zoo (or... the Zoo Manager) trying to build bigger better attractions at your zoo - by matching up tiles to make bigger enclosures. Fairly simple, very clever and not too long.. 

Out little zoos at the end of the game. 

Thursday, 23 December 2021

Initially, a friend of Amanda's was initially supposed to come over and play Wingspan... but kind of bailed on us. 

So Amanda and i just played on our own... 

This was the THIRTIETH game of Wingspan we've played since Amanda got it for her birthday in may. 

It was all festive colours.

(and apparently failing at math...) 

Friday, 24 December 2021

For many years we used to go over to my folks place on the 24th for our family gathering - spend the afternoon and evening there. presents were opened, games were played, puzzles put together and FAR TOO MUCH FOOD was consumed. Because of the pandemic and my parents current situation, this was just not feasible. 

I did get out for a bike ride in the early afternoon, despite feeling a bit run down (probably from the Covid vaccine booster I'd had the day before).

When I got back we played some games. 

Managed to wrangle the whole family into playing Kingdomino again (because it is QUICK!) 

Did I mention that Keiran got rainbow hair the day before...?

 Oh, they got rainbow hair all right! 

The game was SUPER close and everyone built lovely little kingdoms around their castles. 

I ended up winning. I thought I had done well, but then when everyone was telling me their scores I was amazing they'd all scored 10-12 points MORE than me... then they reminded me about the bonus for not having any blank spaces and for ending with the castle in the middle! That bonus fifteen put me in first with 64 points, Keiran had 63, Amanda had 61, and Finnegan had 60!? 

Afterwards, Amanda and i played Castles of Burgundy. Amanda by the end of the first round Amanda was about 50 points ahead of me and stayed well ahead for the rest of the game. I ALMOST caught up at the end with bonus points... but not quite... 

After I post this I think we'll be settling down to watch the new episodes of The Expanse and the Wheel of Time. Loving the Expanse. Indifferent to Wheel of Time. After we are done the latter, I think we'll check out The Witcher... 

I still need to play two more games of Kill Team to finish off ten games of that for my 10x10 challenge... I'm not sure what I'll do for the tenth game... The easiest might be to just play four more rounds of Codenames: Pictures. It might seem lame to add that in to a 10x10 challenge... but I've played THIRTY games of Wingspan... THIRTY!!! I think we've done okay for playing games this year! 

I hope everyone out there is having a happy, HEALTHY holiday season - and I do hope you get in a few games! I expect there will be a few more games we'll be playing this last week (and binge-watching shows on Netflix), as we all have the week off and won't be going out much at all - with the Covid numbers skyrocketing again! 

Candlesticks and Iron Maiden

 

(image pinched from Pintrest)

Every time I hear "Iron Maiden" I think of this scene from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and laugh.

And now I have a miniature Iron Maiden that, if I ever had Bill and Ted miniatures, I could threaten to put them in it! (And then they would say - in the game - "IRON MAIDEN!? EXCELLENT!" and do a little air guitar riff!) 

Iron Maiden from Raper Minaitues (I think...? Probably came with one of the Bones Kickstarters?). 

I figured it would make and interesting Clue Marker or just weird scatter terrain in either The Silver Bayonet or Hellboy: The Board Game!

Candelabra - also from Reaper Minitures - one of the Bones Kickstarters. I have two, but I couldn't locate one of them when I was basing and prepping and priming and painting... Of course, once it was DONE, I immediately found the other... Here is one. I have no idea when I'll get to the other.. Again, I was thinking Clue Token for The Silver Bayonet (or Hellboy). One of the things you can find in the second scenario (which... we've already played) is an ornate candelabra!? I'd hoped to get this or the ones below done before we'd played it... but didn't quite get to it! 

MORE Candle sticks! These are metal and came with the Lead Adventure Miniatures Dwarf Gold Fever Kickstarter. Trying to go with a wrought iron look with these....

Trying something new with these pics.... 

I got a phone this week. 

Well... Amanda bought a phone FOR me. 

Seriously, I almost made it to 50 without one of these. 

Finnegan also got one. They were sort of an early birthday presents for both of us. He turns 18 in two weeks. 

Phones have cameras these days. 

I was experimenting with using the phone to take pictures and fiddling around with how to get it from the phone to the blog. 

The pics aren't too bad. 

GAME PLAN 2022 - Q1

This is a bit early... but I've been thinking about this for a few weeks and got it ready, and I don't think it's going to change much in the next week or so... So these are my vague (let's call it "FLEXIBLE") plans for 2022! 

I've also been putting together a Looking Back at 2021 post... Normally post that along with the Game Plan, but there WILL be stuff to add to that before the end of the year. So, stay tuned for that on the 31st or the 1st of January. 

50 Miniature Games

I turn 50 this year. This is (or WAS, initially) a Miniature Wargaming Blog. 

I'd like to play FIFTY Miniature Wargames this year - and post a game report for each. Ideally they'd be in a series of short campaigns for each. I like the idea of setting aside one day -  as pecific afternoon or evening - of each week to do this and also have a scheduled time to complete a game report to post here. Maybe play the game on a Sunday evening, and post the game report Monday evening...? I don't know. Still working out details.

Initially I was thinking I'd play five different games ten times (which would be half of the 10x10 Challenge - see below)... but I can't guarantee that will happen. SOME of them I will definitely play at least ten times and will be included in the years 10x10 Challenge... Others I will endeavour to play at least five times and may (or may not) be included in some of the Quarterly 5x5 Challenges... Others... might only get a handful of plays. There are just TOO MANY GAMES I want to play!? 

Which games? Given my constantly shifting interests, there is NO WAY I could predict exactly which games I would play over the course of the year. But I can list a few that I definitely WILL play at least a few of... 

• Frostgrave (2nd Edition)
• The Silver Bayonet
• Warhammer Underworlds (Yes, I'm counting it as a miniature game)
• Stargrave
• Kill Team
• Necromunda
• Rangers of Shadowdeep
• Warhammer 40K
• Age of Sigmar
• Maybe some games by Dan Mercy (Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Rebels and Patriots, Men Who Would Be Kings, The Pikeman's Lament, etc) 
• Song of Blades and Heroes - or other games using the same engine (Fistful of Kung Fu, Fear and Faith, Flying Lead, etc). 
• Warhammer Quest - Blakstone Fortress or Cursed City (or the ones Finnegan has?) 
• Hellboy: The Board Game (I know, it's CALLED a board game... but Miniatures are an essential part of it!) 

As I'm kind of leaning towards a narrative campaign of The Silver Bayonet for the February Game Weekend. I have a feeling that I'll be starting off the year with a lot of that and will be playing it most weeks until February - just to get in lots of practice, know the system inside and out, playtest scenarios for the game weekend and make any required tweaks. 

I definitely want to get playing WArhammer Underworlds again. I may mix in a few of those games, here and there. 

5x5 (Quarterly) Challenge - 10x10 (Annual) Challenge

The Quarterly 5x5 challenges worked.... pretty... okay... last year... SURE, I kept things WILDLY flexible and often retroactively changes what the five games were going to be at the end of the quarter... simply because I'd just played different games than I'd planned three months earlier... but STILL PLAYED FIVE DIFFERENT GAMES FIVE TIMES! I liked that in the final Quarter there were enough games that were close enough to ten plays, that I was still interested in playing, to be able to turn that into a 10x10 challenge.

For this year, as with last year, each Quarter I will play five different games, five times each. That's it. I might try to guess what those might be at the beginning of each Quarter - as part of the Quarterly Plan... but I make no promise to keep to those... 

Likewise, by the end of 2022, I will shoot to have played ten different games ten times each. I probably will have NO IDEA what those will be before the final Quarter... and even then... things could very well change! (Though I can almost guarantee one will be Wingspan!) 

Generally, I'd like to pick a few games that I haven't gotten to play so much for a while, that I WOULD really, really like to play more of... (maybe looking at BGGs five and dimes? pick a few of the fives that I'd like to get over onto the "Dimes" list!?)  As well as a few that I'm currently obsessing about. 

Since planning to play 50 miniature games (above) probably need for two (or three) of those five to reflect the miniature games I'm planning to play.

For Q1? 

1. Silver Bayonet
2. Frostgrave or Stargrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep
3. Wingspan 
4. Other Board Game
5. Other Board Game

By the end of this year, we'll have played 30+ game of Wingspan... I can't see that slowing down... 

The "Other Board Games"...? Hard to say... Maybe Kingdom Builder? I'd like to play Marrying Mr. Darcy more...

The whole family seems interested (or... at least... willing?) to play some more board games over the next two weeks - hopefully trying out some different games with them might help us find some games we'd like to play more of over the ncxt three months. 

Wargaming Birthday Bash/February Game Weekend?

I have started planning for this. I started with cataloging all of the Wargaming Birthday Bashes of Past Years. I really hope to do SOMETHING... but I guess we'll have to wait and see what the State of the Pandemic is come February... Given the already rising numbers in December and the fact that people in thos province will be spreading it around over the holidaze as they ignore Public Health advisories (as this government refuses to put any actual orders in place) I can almost guarantee we'll see another huge wave of cases in January (just like last year) and it could very well roll on through February.... So... we'll have to wait and see... 

Some more thoughts about the possibilities for the Wargaming Birthday Bash/February Game Weekend can be found here:

February Gaming Weekend

As mentioned above, I am kind of leaning towards a small, narrative campaign of The Silver Bayonet for 4-6 players. 

TOONCON?

Not even sure if this is even a thing anymore...? Website is down. There has been nothing posted on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram since March 2020...  

OTHER EVENTS

Will play this by ear... 

If the February Game Weekend goes well, I might like to do something similar later in the year. Maybe over the summer or in the fall. 

There have been some Warhammer 40K events held locally... They seem to enforce proof of vaccination and masks... so, maybe it's time to attend some of those.

PAINTING

It seems likely SOME painting will happen... 

I imagine, at this point, most of it will be focused on getting things ready for the FIFTY miniature games I'm planning to play. 

Part of me wants to use the 50 games as motivation to get things done - i.e. plan for the each next weeks scenario to include a NEW UNIT (or monster, or terrain piece - something that's useable in a game) - so I have a deadline to "motivate" me and that way I'll get a new unit (or whetver) FINISHED!? I feel like making that a thing might be setting myself up for failure... Maybe I should just work on stuff that's fun in the moment and if/when I get something done, I can incorporate it into the next weeks game... and thus when making plans for the upcoming game, only use stuff that is ALREADY DONE! (because I DO HAVE TONNES OF STUFF that is already done!) 

Let's leave it at that and go play some games... 

Fifteen Years

Fifteen years ago, today, I started this blog. When I made this realization, last week, I thought maybe I'd do a retrospective post - going over all the different things i've been doing over the years... but as I started going through the posts and correlating that with games logged on Board Game Geek... it suddenly felt like a bit much... Maybe for TWENTY! Besides, it's all RIGHT HERE on the blog!? Feel free to sift through 15 years of posts. 

Also, I recently catalogued the last Seventeen Annual Wargaming Birthday Bashes, and that should give you a general idea of what I was doing over those years. At the end of most Decembers (or beginnings of Januarys) there is usually a "Looking Back at...." post that summarized what I got up to the previous year. 

On with the new things! 

There should be lots of gaming going on over the next two weeks as the kids and Amanda are all off work/school. Some of those might even be MINIATURE WARGAMES!? 

The Silver Bayonet - French (ELF!?) Unit

As with the Russians I posted yesterday, these Napoleonic French(-ish) Elves are from a Deadloque starter box I pickedup somewhere over a decade ago. Two of these I painted just over TEN YEARS AGO!? (Though I've rebased and touched them up!).

Also, just like the Russians, my plan is to use them in The Silver Bayonet. 

I'll admit, I don't know a tonne about Napoleonic French armies and don't know what some of these are supposed to be, exactly (assuming these FANTASY ELVES are in a direct copy of of an actual Historical French uniform!?). I guess as a ragtag group of survivors, they could have picked up bits of uniforms from others along the way, as needed... 

The whole unit. 

The Box came with a booklet that had names for them all and probably explained who they all were. There is currently still a listing for these as a separate pack on Alternative Armies website (though it currently says "out of stock") - The page does list their names, but does not indicate which is which... So I've just made up my own names... 

Lieutenant Etienne Delarue - formerly a commander of a troop of Lancers, now leads this rag-tag group of Monster Hunters. He has a Musket and Cartridge box (tucked away in his riding cloak. I'm not sure what to classify the Lance as? Heavy Weapon? Might just not and say it's just there for show... Have not selected stats or additional equipment for him yet. 

(I just noticed I may have gotten the white and red of the flag on the lance mixed up... GAH!? May just leave it...) 

Soldats Luc Deschamps and Guy Lambert- two Imperial Guardsmen with Musket, bayonet and cartridge box - with both Cold Iron and Silver Shot! 

Sergeant Jean-Louis Babineaux, Laurent Lafleur, and Docteur Henri Dubois 

Sergeant Jean-Louis Babineaux I think ... is supposed to be an officer, but I'm going to call him a sergeant from an Imperial Guard Regiment (a different one from ... and ...) and classify him as a Junior Officer. He is armed with Musket, Bayonet, and Cartridge box with both Cold Iron an Silver Shot. 

Laurent Lafleur is a dismounted Hussar that I'll classify as a Swordsman (I know, French aren't supposed to have Swordsman... but that's what I'm calling him) with Fencing Weapon (inlaid with silver) and Pistol. 

Finally, Docteur Henri Dubois is a medical doctor armed with a hand weapon and pistol and detailed medical knowledge. The handweapon is actually just a brutally sharp silver scalpel. 

Again I thought I'd include a little size comparison... From Left to Right: Hät, Alternative Armies, Renegade Miniatures,  Alternative Armies, Perry Miniatures, Alternative Armies, Hät. I do have some other French, that I probably would have liked to include in this line-up... but none of them are painted... 

I'm usually not that fussy about different sizes of models being on the table - especially if they're in different units. I'm less excited about using minitures with HUGE differences within the same units. I likely won't be bolstering these with any of the Hät minis! 

My order from Minifigs/Matchlock Miniatures arrived and they are wonderful. The ones that showed up. It's missing one of the minis I ordered. Those that arrived are already prepped and primed and on the workbench! I also just loaded Pride and prejudice onto my ipod to listen to while painting them. 

Today is the kids' last day of school! I think we still have dance classes this weekend, but aafter that - nothing much on the schedule - so hopefully these guys will be hitting the tables SOON! 

Oh, Those Russians...

 Some time ago, I picked up a box of miniatures and rules from Alternative Armies. I can't remember where...? I feel like it was in a bargain bin or a bring and buy. I'm pretty sure I didn't pay much for it. It was for Flintloque...? or maybe Deadloque...? One of their fantasy napoleonic skirmish games. 

The box contained a bunch of Russians - A Vampire, a Lich, five Zombie soldier and some undead peasants... and then a handful of Elves in an assortment of French-like uniforms, bundled in rags and bandages looking like French soldiers retreating from Moscow in with winter of 1812. 

I painted the Vampire and Lich a little over ten years ago(!),  followed by one of the zombie Russian soldiers, and finally two of the French Elves. Mostly just for funsies - I was painting a few things from the period, at the time, thinking I might do some War of 1812 games over the next few years on the bicentenials of assorted battles (that didn't end up happening...). I never really did anything with the fantasy Naploeonics. 

Flash-Forward One Decade.

Looking around for monsters and other miniatures that could pass off for late 18th/early 19th century miniatures that I already own that could be pressed into service in The Silver Bayonet, I was reminded of these... Though they are RATHER LARGE, I still started to daydream and even imagine scenarios or full campaigns - where the Lich and Vampire are the Ultimate bad-guy to face and bring down at the end of a campaign. I've rebased the lot of them, following the new scheme of putting heroes or leaders on larger 32mm bases and the rest on 25mm bases. 

The Russians

(I do have three more undead Russian peasants to paint up... and considering picking up a few more... maybe in the new year, if we DO get playing this a LOT!) 

Evil Boss Duo - Igor and Grigory  (Igor Chernobogovich Koshei, the Lich and Grigory Verdilakovich Putin, the Vampire). I'm not sure who is THE Big Bad Boss... Is it the Vampire...? Is it the Lich...? Are they uneasy partners who loathe each other, but recognize they are stronger working together (but will betray the other in the back, the moment they think they can consolidate power on their own)? Still have to figure that out... 

Zombie Russian Soldiers. One was just rebased (and touched up, so the colours match the others a bit better), the other four are all newly painted. 

Revenants (Zombies) in The Silver Bayonet don't normally have firearms. I thought these, being minions of a Lich/Vampire, could have the smallest sort of sentience. I think I may give them a musket that can be fired - but give them a Shoot Value of -2 and say it cannot be reloaded. I imagine they would be the personal guard Lich and Vampire. Neither Lich nor Vampire would expect them to actually hit anything (unless they got very, very lucky) but the discharging of a musket would alert the others of the presence/approach of intruders! 

Undead Russian Peasants

Well... Two of them are peasants... One seems to be in some sort of partial uniform...? 

One broke off from his feet/base at the ankles, years ago, and I have subsequently lost said base with feet attached. I had throught I'd drill the legs and make new feet... but the tiney little stick legs were so skinny this seemed unlikely to work... So I just stuck him in a wad of green stuff and after painting burried the lower feet in static grass to make it look like it's walking through tall grass. 

These minis are HUGE for "28mm"! Here they are with a few others from the period that I might also make use of... From Left to Right: Old 25mm Minifig Rifleman, Alternative Armies Zombie Russian, Renedage Miniatures British Soldier, Alternative Armies Lich, Wargames Foundry Highlander, Alternative Armies Vampire, Perry Miniatures Rifleman, Hät French Chasseurs Pioneer. 

I probalby should have thrown one of the zombie peasants in... they're a little more reasonably proportioned. 

If the Perry Miniatures rifleman was standing up straight, he might not be too far off, Height-wise... but the Alternative Armies stuff is so CHUNKY - equipment, accoutrements, hands are all so gigantic!? 

All that being said, I'll probably use these on the tabletop together... I'm not THAT fussy. I woudn't mix them in the same units, but as opposing forces I find it less noticeable (at least until they get into melee!) 

Not sure what will be rolling off the workbench next. Could be rest of the French Elves from this same set (aside from the occasional pointy ear poking out on one or two of them, they can easily pass for French soldiers that could be in Russia facing these guys... and there's probably just enough to make a Unit for Silver Bayonet! I do also have a few old Citadel Goblins that I stripped ages ago to repaint - they are needed for the third solo scenario - along with a troll. I also have more Napoleonic soldiers... Like, a half-dozen special units worth cobbled together.... AND a few Frostgrave warbands!? (So much for keeping the workbench free of distraction!) 

I watched/listened to an interview with Mr. McCullough the other evening and was QUITE disappointed to learn that this WAS intended as a stand-alone book with no plans for expansions... wow... It kind of made the lack of content in this book a little more bitter of a pill to swallow... But I'm still enjoying the game and... well... I'll just make shit up on my own - an not have to BUY anything more for it! Huzzah!