Do not teach your wife to wargame, gentlemen.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Be gentle with me FK, I had been up for 18 hours after completing 8 x 12.5 hour night shifts

Fun aren't they ? 

[Techno]

No.....Only ever had to do one.....In the exchange at 3 in the morning on a Sunday, to switch all the lines from a 'string and rubber band system' to an electronic exchange.
I think there around twenty to thirty of us in at that unearthly hour....The actual work itself took less than 5 minutes....Then it was a case of seeing if anything had been b*ggered up.

The best bit was sitting in the canteen and watching everyone arrive for that 'shift'......Talk about 'night of the living dead'. 

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Done hundreds of em, we usually got it all done by about 04:00 but stuck til 08:30 UGH!!!

[Orcs]

Mine can be dead boring with nothing going on, or so frantic the takeaway your ordered for 10:30 pm finally gets reheated at 3 am.  Worst bit is I am watching 5 22" screens full of alarms hoping I don't miss an important one.

[Ithoriel]

I feel your pain Orcs!

I am so glad to be well past the delights of standing freezing my .... socks ... off, chatting to whichever PC had drawn the short straw and got to stand around in the cold and dark while some guy in a shonky looking harness scrambled around the outside a Victorian building, or the fragile looking parapet of a bridge, running cable because that was the only permissible route and 4am was the only time we could get the city centre road closed. Usually part of a 38 hour weekend slotted between two 36.25 hour weeks of split shifts.

Not sure the wodges of money were worth the toll on my health! So look after yours.

   

[Techno]

There was one fairly large balls up on the exchange change-over.....After all the 'new lines' had been set up, some of the engineers were supposed to go and cut the old cables with bolt croppers.

Unfortunately, one of them, cut through a number of 100 (?) pair cables that were still wanted...That meant that one particular group had a frantic few hours reconnecting everything....OOOPS !

No...it wasn't me.

Cheers - Phil

[Ithoriel]

Never had computer cables cut but did have an apprentice sparks accidentally cut through the fire alarm circuit in a busy, seven floor, public building - oops! indeed

Fortunately I was off-site and not project manager when another sparks I'd been working with fatally forgot he'd turned the power back on and reached between two very large bus bars to pick up a screwdriver and completed the circuit. :-(

[Techno]

Ouch ! 

Cheers - Phil

[mmcv]

FK, where did you get your figures? Chinese ancients in small scales are harder to come by which is a shame given how grand the scale of the battles!

I've seen MM do some Qin, Newline some Han and Irregular some Shang. Any others you've used?

[FierceKitty]

Newline are a big part of it; I like everything but their chariots, which don't actually have real spokes in the wheels. The other company I chiefly used were Reiver, now allegedly sold by Northumbrian Painting Services. Their chariots were much better, and most of the figures good, but their dagger-axes were hopelessly flimsy, and I had to do a lot of cutting, drilling, and gluing, with imperfect results. I have a few Magister Militum, but not many; their poses are insipid, and the prices are high.

I can't find any Irregular Miniatures 10mm Shang. Are you sure?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

MM do do one nice peice - Justinian as a mounting block, the only none Pendraken bit in my Sassanian army.

[FierceKitty]

Mmm, I couldn't resist that one either, though the story's probably not true.

I like some MM figures a lot; but others are very dumpy and nondescript.

[mmcv]

Sorry I meant Sung/Song. Been a while since I looked at them. Under the medieval range. Nice enough figures but a bit later than I'd like and the conical hats are a bit too distinct to use for substitution, though might work with a little modification and a few may work for officers etc. Got a few samples to see how they looked at one point though haven't painted. Aiming to do Warring States or Han at some point in the future so always on the lookout for suitable figures.

Reiver 10mm don't seem to be available anywhere anymore.

MM seem to be the only ones doing Qin and the figures are a little on the dumpy side from the images in the site, but I have other MM figs that are nice so need to buy a pack at some point and see how they look in person.

The Newline Han are nice, though would be good if they'd a spearman pack and maybe some militia for all those colourful Han rebels.

[FierceKitty]

When I mentioned that I'd like Midianite Arabs on camels, Newline made one a few days later. Ask them?

I do use IM Song for my Ming, but there's no problem there.

[mmcv]

When I mentioned that I'd like Midianite Arabs on camels, Newline made one a few days later. Ask them?

I do use IM Song for my Ming, but there's no problem there.

Interesting, I've not had any dealings with them yet, though will likely be getting some bits from them in a few months when I've cleared down the painting queue a bit. Will have to ask and see!

Yeah the Song would work well with the Ming.

[FierceKitty]

They also have regular 4-for-3 sales.

[mmcv]

They also have regular 4-for-3 sales.

Nice, I'll keep an eye out as I've been eying up their biblical ranges for a while too.

[FierceKitty]

I've got their Egyptians and Assyrians (Minoans too) - lovely stuff if you fancy wheelie-bins on the battlefield.

[Ithoriel]

I've got their Egyptians and Assyrians (Minoans too) - lovely stuff if you fancy wheelie-bins on the battlefield.

Never mind wheelie-bins, get a proper army ... with donkey carts

[mmcv]

I've got their Egyptians and Assyrians (Minoans too) - lovely stuff if you fancy wheelie-bins on the battlefield.

Probably going to do a Trojan War style thing first as has lots of opportunities for allies from all over the range that can be expanded into other armies at a future date. May even do up some Pendraken Sarmatians as "Amazons". My wife once showed interest in it when we watched a miniseries about Troy. Maybe I can convince her to have a go at wargaming and experience a string of losses myself...