The Pearly Quail

Today is 13th January 2014.  For many of you, this is just a day - a dull Monday, the start of one of the first weeks of the year when you've only just got used to work after being off for Christmas.  It is, in short, a dull day.

However, it's not dull for me, because it's my birthday.  And not just any old birthday, oh no.  It's one of those ends-in-a-zero-it-must-be-time-for-serious-maturing birthday.

The big tri-decennial.

However, maturing ain't really my strong point, and while there is a part of me that finds it surreal to imagine that I'm no longer 23, OK, maybe 27 max, here I am.  A child of the 80s in a world where people born in 1997 can vote in the next general election even though I was gearing up for my first 40K edition shift when they were still needing their nappies changed. But I've not let that impair my ability to get silly presents - some with a wargaming vibe.




Therefore, almost all my gifts so far have been decidedly nerdy.  Ailsa got me Back to the Future Lego; dice in different languages, specifically German, Italian and Japanese; and in a particularly cute touch, she got local comic book artist and our nerdy chum Neil Slorance to do a picture of us as our favourite superheroes, Animal Man and Batwoman.

Please check out Neil's work: he has done some lovely little comics, both online and in hard copy.  Even 0Canadian astronaut-and-bard Chris Hadfield likes him.

But more specific to this blog, I got some more nerdy toys!  I've been filling up on basic troops for my Chaos Dwarf army on eBay, but Ailsa gave them someone to command them by buying me the pack of three Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmiths.  These lovely chaps are my spellcasters, and will likely serve as the bulk of my Hero and Lord choices.

Forge World's catalogue picture.  I wondered why I seemingly had an extra head - it's apparently so I can brandish a severed one at my foes.

I also got another wargame rule book, albeit a different one to any we've discussed before.  7TV, a skirmish wargaming by Dundee-based Crooked Dice Game Design Studio, is a game homegrown in Scotland with a focus on mimicing the style of 60s and 70s cult TV shows like Doctor Who, Avengers, Blakes 7 and the like.

You can buy a PDF direct from their site for just £12 if you fancy trying this out.

I am a sucker for some of these naff old shows - I am a big fan of Doctor Who, in the "I think William Hartnell is one of the best Doctors" kind of way, for example, and I'm also very fond of The Prisoner.  A game to mimic these sounds fun; supporting a local(ish) company a good endeavour; a skirmish game is more manageable for me to dabble in since I only need to paint up a handful of figures; and 7TV do a line of miniatures to go with their game which includes some awesome serial-numbers-filed-off items.

From Crooked Game's website: I don't care if I ever play the game, owning a Number 6 figure would be awesome.

So some new fun in the future for me.  Fulgrim needs finished first, but after that I'm torn between painting up more stuff to make the marines Heresy-ready or leaping straight into one of my new army plans.  Moving back to basic troops will probably speed my progress up intensely!