Me:
Retired, married. Live in Greater Manchester.
Day to day life is being a Charity trustee and weekend volunteer, also helping with a community project (Dementia and Age support) & and a very 'needy' cat.
Wargaming - then:
Wargamed when in secondary education. Found my niche with 6 mm Napoleonic Russians using WRG rules.
I had tended to lose interest as I was the whipping-boy. Until I bought the Russians I had no armies of my own and so always fought with a 'loaner'. With a constant switch to what army I was lent and rules to be used: well 'win' was what my opponent did!
Wargaming – now:
Searching the web I came across the OHW. By proportionally reducing the facings I was wargaming on a 300 x 300 mm board. Armies were card counters. Not happy with the weapon / troop capability / variation I wrote my own rules, (but based on OHW concepts).
Next buy armies: Pendraken was selected: Romans, Ancient Spanish, Carthaginian, Gaul. – but as yet not all figures painted. (And later to be joined by Persians & Greeks).
Next Sudan '82-'85. Generated my own rules, which owe much to OHW and Portable Wargames (PW) as this set of rules is for square grid.
Pendraken miniatures and majority of figures painted and based.
And most recently ECW.
Based on sets of PW type rules found on-line I have generated my own rules in which I hope I have biased troop ability to pre 1645.
Figures: Pendraken – purchased at FIASCO 2019. (Currently the units are card markers).
All the above give me a solo game which can last up to an hour. However the setting up can take up to 30 minutes.
Ancients: dice for which OHW scenario, dice for which armies are to fight & then the composition of those armies.
Sudan: only real decision is which infantry units for the Imperial army.
ECW: dice for armies compositions and then the competence level of those units, dice for terrain,
Short solo games work for me due to many demands on my time which means needing great flexibility for my dairy.
I like your range of armies. Welcome aboard.
Welcome to the forum, I think card armies is a great way to feeling your way into how your figures should be based and configured. I think there will be a lot of interest in following how your games / rules / armies develop.
A very warm welcome !
Cheers - Phil.
Welcome aboard!
Finished the punic war armies myself in the beginning of the year, great choice of minis!
You know you want Hellenistics, Thracians, Scythians, Numidians, and Indians....
Welcome on board and some nice ideas there for your games. I've just ordered the following, which is grid based and looks interesting, so might be worth your while perusing them:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ur-Human-Tabletop-conflict-Mesopotamia/dp/1699824924/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=to+ur+is+human&qid=1572348344&sr=8-2 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ur-Human-Tabletop-conflict-Mesopotamia/dp/1699824924/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=to+ur+is+human&qid=1572348344&sr=8-2)
Moaning
Welcome to the Forum!
A warm welcome from me, too. :)
Welcome GridGame!
Hello and welcome
Welcome to the forum,
Good to see you have a lead pile. It is a well known and accepted fact that to thrive Wargamers need at least their on bodyweight in unpainted Lead, resin and Plastic.
Leon is the unrepentant supplier if addictive substances ,(although He does not yet have a blacked out BMW) so you are in the right place.
The Forum is generally full of good ideas help and suggestions.
Welcome :-h
Welcome to the forum, GridGame!
Quote from: Steve J on 29 October 2019, 11:27:05 AM
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ur-Human-Tabletop-conflict-Mesopotamia/dp/1699824924/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=to+ur+is+human&qid=1572348344&sr=8-2 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ur-Human-Tabletop-conflict-Mesopotamia/dp/1699824924/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=to+ur+is+human&qid=1572348344&sr=8-2)
Argh! I need that like I need a hole in the head. But now that I know it exists, and with an Amazon gift card laying close by . . . Curse you, Steve J!
Quote from: Orcs on 29 October 2019, 04:17:50 PM
The Forum is generally full of good ideas help and suggestions.
And occasionally very silly silliness. It usually passes after a day or two.
QuoteCurse you, Steve J!
:d :d :d
Quote from: Raider4 on 29 October 2019, 07:12:35 PM
Argh! I need that like I need a hole in the head. But now that I know it exists, and with an Amazon gift card laying close by . . . Curse you, Steve J!
I was in the process of ordering "To Ur is Human" when Steve's message came in. It simply confirmed the rightness of my decision :)
Quote from: Raider4 on 29 October 2019, 07:12:35 PM
And occasionally very silly silliness. It usually passes after a day or two.
<♪>"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Fremde, étranger, stranger
Glücklich zu sehen, je suis enchanté, happy to see you
Bleibe, reste, stay
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome
Im Pendraken, au Pendraken, to Pendraken" /
<♪>(spoken)
Leave your troubles outside!
So, life is disappointing? Err!? Forget it!
We have no troubles here!
Here life is beautiful!
Hello and welcome.
Silliness there is aplenty, but genuinely a very friendly and knowledgeable place.
Why did you pick Pendraken?
1] Firstly thanks to all for all the welcomes
and to answer some questions:
2] feedback on rules on reports on games - 1st I need to get my head around 'batreps' - particularly posting pics
3] Choosing Pendraken? - friendly service, great range of figures and samples
4] next purchase - Persian & Greeks
5] next era? - possibly SCW. Certainly Pendraken has plenty of suitable 'lead' :D. My current issue is understanding SCW tactics/formations. For Ancients my gaming of years ago gave me a very basic understanding (- and I still shy away from chariot based armies). For Mahdi/Sudan on line sources and battle/skirmish reports give a good flavour to tactics, etc. For ECW: reading (on-line) battle reports & ECW blogs, including rules, has given me a basic tactical understanding.
THe SCW stuff is nice !
Welcome to the forum GridGame.
I'll look forward to your postings.
What's OHW?
One Hour Wargames, Steve. At least that's the acronym I know.
Overhead wires ???
Indeed OHW is One Hour Wargames which is essentially a book by Neil Thomas which promotes a very simple rules system which has been adapted for many eras. I used the basic rules in my first 'later life' games (for Ancients) and found them OK. The 30 scenarios in the book even as a solo player are challenging. Since I dice for the armies in combat, the composition of that army, the scenario to be played and then which army is 'red' or 'blue' in that scenario it is possible to end up with some challenging tactical situations: how do you move a slow moving infantry army across the board (the win condition) when faced with an almost 100% cavalry army?
Only 'OK'? – didn't like the limited troop types & associated weapons/ability and so I wrote my own hand-hand rules – based on DBA & WRG info.
Thanks, I'd tried some of the more common matches, and none made sense:
* Oil-powered water heater.
* Overhead weight.
* Ordinary High Water.
* One Hit Wonder.
Old half-wits.
Kitty kindly keep your description of yourself to yourself ;)
Everyone knows it about me already! But note the plural....
Which pensions youse drawin Orcs ?
Quote from: ianrs54 on 31 October 2019, 01:22:56 PM
Which pensions youse drawin Orcs ?
Its a few years yet till I get to draw by gilt edged pension from my employer and dozen years to the state pension (If it still exists by the time I get there).
Unless I am one of the lucky ones that gets given compulsory redundancy next year.
Take the pension as soon as you can, Mark...and the compulsory redundancy !!!
State pension ?.....A dozen years ?.....In your dreams, Matey....sadly. :(
Von's been done out of thirty to forty £K..(at this point)...as have umpteen hundreds of thousands of 'girlies' around her age......If 'they' change it yet again.....I will go completely ape poo. >:( >:( >:(
Cheers - Phil
I have some sympathy for the ladies there, Phil (although not completely). Although my wife is only 4 weeks younger than me, because of the 'phasing in' rules, she had to wait 3 months longer than me before her State Pension started. However, it has to be said we were aware of the proposed changes to women's retirement ages from Age 60 to Age 65 when first announced.
It was on the TV and in the news when first announced at one of the Chancellor's budgets in the early 1990's and once again, in the news, in the newspapers, in insurance companies' and insurance brokers' letters and newsletters to their customers and notified by company pension schemes to their members when the legislation was passed in the 1995 Pensions Act. If I remember correctly, this Act initially set down a timetable for gradually extending the State Retirement Age over a 10 year period for women born in 1953(?) and after, starting from 2010 and finishing in 2020.
This therefore gave women affected a minimum of 15 years to make suitable provision for this in their retirement planning. Yet for various reasons, it appears that loads of women somehow missed this at the time it was first proposed, then later when enacted and then again in the intervening 15 year to 25 year period leading up to their retirement. No doubt some were not financially able to save and so, plan for retirement but I'm also sure many others never gave retirement planning a second thought until it was too late.
Where I have the most sympathy is with the sneaky change (in my opinion) in 2011 when the then government brought forward a plan to increase the State Pension Age from Age 65 to age 66 in 2026, to 2020, for both males and females. This then resulted in them scrapping the original timetable for phasing in the Age 65 retirement age by 2020 for women and introducing a new one for Age 66 to start in 2020 for both sexes.
This affected almost as many men as women and unfairly gave people a lot less time to make adequate provision in their retirement planning to compensate for the shortfall.
For those who don't know, forget any notion of a big giant State Pension fund sitting there. State Pensions are paid out of current Government revenue from taxation (including N.I.). The percentage of retired people is increasing because people are living longer and so there are less people paying taxes and N.I. to fund their pensions. The reality is that previous State Retirement Ages are therefore no longer sustainable and unfortunately may therefore have to increase yet again in the future.
Unless you have married a young bit of stuff then, Phil, hopefully this won't affect you. ;)
What most worries me is when my own family might actually be in a position to retire in reasonable comfort. :-S
NB: Fellow 'forumites,' please be aware that I cannot guarantee that all of the above information is entirely accurate - it's been a long time since I worked in the pensions industry so I've relied on memory for this post. However, to you 'young uns,' please don't leave your retirement planning to the last minute or be afraid to seek financial advice. better to start making a small start now than none at all. :-B
Quote from: Westmarcher on 31 October 2019, 11:29:04 PM
However, to you 'young uns,' please don't leave your retirement planning to the last minute or be afraid to seek financial advice. better to start making a small start now than none at all.[/size] :-B
I'm not quite sure if I class as a 'young un' but pensions are something that worries me quite a lot. We've never been in a position to save anything and being self-employed I'm reliant on the State pension currently. My wife is an employee of the business so she's getting a small amount into a pension each month now, but it's not a huge amount. I'm hoping that we can start to put something away in the next ten years but we need to get ourselves a house first and stop wasting money on rent. I read a study a while back that said by age 40, you'd need to be putting £700 per month into a pension to have a roughly national average income at retirement. I can't see that happening somehow!
I paid into a pension for one year in the late 80's, then stopped when I went overseas. I've had a good company pension for around 15+ years now and braodly speaking both pensions are worth the same!!! We had a good presentation from an IFA recently just to update us on things and basically, the sooner you can start paying in the better. As you say Leon, when you hit 40 odd the amount you have to pay in is like having another mortgage.
Von got 'caught' twice.
Once when the age jumped from 60 to 65......and again when they started sliding the age over 65.
I suppose I was lucky, in the resect that I just managed to sneak under the radar and did get my State Pension at 65.
Von's going to be around a week short of her 66th birthday when she gets hers.....Less than a year now.
Davy (Westie) is absolutely right in the respect that there isn't a bottomless pit of money to fund the State Pension.....people are living longer, and there are fewer folk (in proportion) to 'chip in'.
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: Techno on 31 October 2019, 04:30:15 PM
Take the pension as soon as you can, Mark...and the compulsory redundancy !!!
I would have taken it by now If I had not got divorced and had to start with another mortgage.
I will already get a reduction into my State pension of £1600 a year as my
Benevolent money grabbing employer "opted us out" to save themselves paying extra tax. >:( >:( >:(